What to do with a rogue general? With Pieter du Toit

Loading player...
It seems like anyone can become South Africa’s foreign policy spokesperson these days. Just ask the chief of our defence force. South African National Defence Force chief General Rudzani Maphwanya jetted off to Tehran this week to meet with his Iranian counterpart and, quite astonishingly, spoke like the country’s foreign minister. And now our actual international relations minister, Ronald Lamola, back home, is scrambling to clean up after the general’s mess. Maphwanya’s timing couldn’t have been worse as Pretoria tries to salvage ties with Washington whose missiles just recently struck Tehran’s nuclear sites. The Lead host Graeme Raubenheimer and investigations editor Pieter du Toit are left wondering how or why this trip happened at all. Later in the show, we end off with ‘On This Day in History’. You can send show host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to thelead@24.com. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
Chapters
  • 00:01 Graeme's intro
  • 01:28 Crossing to Pieter du Toit
  • 22:14 AD: Bruce Whitfield's Business Week on News24
  • 22:41 On This Day in History
14 Aug 2025 English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

The Daveyton Muti Murders Part 2

NOTE: Listener’s discretion is strongly advised. In Part 2 of News24’s narrative podcast investigation, The Daveyton Muti Murders, we honour the memory of budding Wits University student, Wandile Jasop, and detail a deeply disturbing cycle of extreme violence unfolding in the historic Ekurhuleni town in the late 2010s. Reported over nearly six…
28 Aug 23 min

TRAILER: The Daveyton Muti Murders - a News24 narrative podcast investigation

News24 this Sunday, 23 August, brings you The Daveyton Muti Murders, a three-part narrative podcast investigation into the historical Ekurhuleni town’s disturbing history of ritual killings. The saga begins with Jabulani Mntungwa, a 20-year-old aspiring young man who leaves his sleepy hometown of eMkhondo for the bright lights of Gauteng’s…
21 Aug 1 min

The Daveyton Muti Murders Part 1

Please note: Listener’s discretion is strongly advised. News24 this Sunday brings you The Daveyton Muti Murders, a three-part narrative podcast investigation into the historical Ekurhuleni town’s disturbing history of ritual killings. The saga begins with Jabulani Mntungwa, a 20-year-old aspiring young man who leaves his sleepy hometown of eMkhondo for the…
21 Aug 23 min

Digesting the anti-immigrant marches, with Bongekile Macupe, Sakhiseni Nxumalo

In this edition of The Lead with Graeme Raubenheimer, we assess the immediate aftermath of the June 30th anti-immigration marches with News24’s deputy politics editor, Bongekile Macupe, and Durban journalist, Sakhiseni Nxumalo. Macupe witnessed firsthand how pockets of violence took over the mass demonstration in Johannesburg, while Nxumalo observed a…
1 Jul 40 min

What happens after 30 June’s anti-migrant marches? With Sakhiseni Nxumalo

With the clock ticking on the 30 June “deadline” set by anti-migrant groups, will peace prevail as marchers take to the streets this Tuesday? With so many foreigners queuing up in Durban and other parts of the country, to somehow find a way home, what happens then when this cutoff comes…
29 Jun 30 min