Podcasts from the Edge

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Peter Bruce, veteran South African newspaper editor and commentator, interviews the country's social and political leaders and experts in a weekly effort to explain what is actually going on in this complicated country. Bruce's interviews are about making events easy to understand for people with little time to listen.

  1. 4 FEB

    Steenhuisen is just following the vaccine rules

    Agriculture author and expert Wandile Sihlobo tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge that Agriculture mMinister John Steenhuisen has not option but to import foot and mouth vaccines through a centralised operation, despite the threats from many farmers to challenge him in court  to fight for the right to do the vaccinations themselves. “We can't now produce any vaccines,” he says, but, "if you want to vaccinate about 12 million head of cattle and you're not going to do it once  — you will vaccinate and then you need to boost and perhaps vaccinate two more times so that you are fully out of this as Argentina and the others have done before, then you need to have that supply in place.The problem then that Africa has is that we don't have the supply in place ... and then it has to be imported by the state. And in fact, that's what the regulations from the World Organization of Animal Health say. So when Minister Steenhuisen says it's only the government who will import, he's really following the rules.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    42 min

  2. 21 JAN

    If Ramaphosa caused the navy exercise fiasco, will anyone tell us?

    If the past is any guide then some middle-ranking official of officer is going to take the fall for the cock-up at sea last week when an Iranian corvette took part in exercises off of False Bay with the South African, Chinese and Russian navies after President Cyril Ramaphosa, very late in the day, issued instructions (exactly what he said and whether or not he wrote it down we still don’t know) that they should not take part. There was probably no need for the Iranian vessel to follow the others out to sea, veteran military analyst Helmut Roemer Heitman tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge, if it was merely going to observe. You can observe from the bridge of a participating ship. The result of the mess thus created, he says, is that "It'll be have a demoralizing impact on an already demoralized defense force because they'll be given the blame. And that's bad because the morale is already not good for obvious reasons. So you'll have more people leave who we'd rather keep and you'll have fewer people join who we'd like to join” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    47 min

  3. 10/12/2025

    Why Imports don’t explain our decline

    One of the best industrial minds in South Africa, XA Global Trade Advisors MD Donald Mackay, tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge that using import tariffs to protect local industry is a losing strategy. “ We assume that the reason our manufacturing sector more broadly struggles to compete is that we assume that an import tariff will fix it whereas the reason we struggle to make things is we've got broken infrastructure. We don't have electricity... The ports are broken.The reason we're not competitive has nothing to do with what other people are doing. Many of our imports are just the importation of [other countries’] electricity that is working consistently and functioning infrastructure and a safe environment to invest in. That is what you're effectively importing.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    54 min

  4. 03/12/2025

    Amateur hour in South African diplomacy?

    Former DA leader Tony Leon tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge that South Africa is taking a chance in there way it is confronting US President Donald Trump’s decisions to boycott the recent G20 Summit in Johannesburg and his subsequent announcement that he would not permit SA to participate in the G20 under his chairmanship in 2026. Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola calling Trump a “white supremacist” days before the Johannesburg summit was “the most self-harming remark” from the country’s most senior diplomat. It recalls former National Party Prime Minister John Vorster telling the world in 1968 it could “do its damndest” if it thought Apartheid would ever be dismantled. “He did very well in the next election,” remembers Leon, “but I don’t think this will help now. This idea that you can go to a powerful country and give it the middle finger might give you a moment of satisfaction but I think (for) worthwhile diplomats and meaningful diplomacy you have to think twice before you react. South African diplomacy is amateur hour, kind of … if you want a result, if you want to join the cheering gallery of the anti-trumpets in the world well that’s a very crowded saloon and no doubt it makes you feel good but I don;t think its going to meet any of the government’s apparent objectives to grow the economy, to get investment here and bulk up our trade.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    45 min

  5. 25/11/2025

    Fantastic Summit, but sadly no consensus

    Peter Bruce argues, in this Podcasts from the Edge monologue, that while the G20 Summit in Johannesburg at the weekend went well, and that the West gathered around to support President Cyril Ramaphosa, he was unable to secure unanimous consensus on the Leaders’ Declaration he cleverly introduced at the beginning, rather than at the close, of the gathering. Whatever the gloss, the absence of the US and the the decision by Argentina not to support the Summit final communique, introduced for the first time a crack in the G20 edifice that may be difficult, if not impossible, to repair. It wasn’t all Ramaphosa’s fault but while the gathering was excellent, it didn’t quite succeed. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    10 min

  6. 19/11/2025

    So, are we turning the economic corner or still getting to the corner?

    Amid a flurry of upbeat economic news — a good mini-budget, a stronger rand, escape from the Grey List, the JSE on steroids and progress, on paper at least, on reform of South Africa’s moribund rail and ports system — Anne Bernstein, head of the Centre for Development and Enterprise tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge that “I’m the first to welcome good news (but) we need to recognise what changes have been made (but) I don't think we've turned the corner. I think we're approaching the corner. And if you look at a lot of the reforms, energy's the most important … but there's so much more to do ... we shouldn't let our guard down. Look at the whole chess board. There's unemployment (which) is worse than it was a year ago by some 200,000 people. And we are simultaneously watching the absolute chaos, corruption and disaster in our criminal justice system”. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    52 min

  7. 12/11/2025

    Renewal? Seriously? How does the ANC cook with rotten eggs?

    Veteran ANC leader Mathews Phosa, a former ANC Treasurer-general and Mpumalanga premier, tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge that he doesn’t take talk of renewal in the ANC seriously. It’s spin, he says. "The election of 2024 showed that (the ANC) has died from 57% to 40%. If you think that was bad, as we stand now it is going to go down to 26% unless something traumatic happens ... there's too much spin. When you say want to renew, what are you renewing? You're not going to take rotten eggs and think that tomorrow they'll make a good omelet.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    47 min

  8. 29/10/2025

    Can the State step on the gas?

    South Africa is taking a huge bet on a new fuel source for electricity — liquid natural gas (LNG). Electricity Minister Kghosientsho Ramokgopa has said we will target using LNG for 6 00MW of powerby 2030 but there almost no infrastructure to import it and no plant to make electricity from it. The government will gazette its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan in a matter of days. In this edition of Podcasts from the Edge Peter Bruce talks to Jaco Human, CEP of the Gas Users Association of Southern Africa, who currently use gas for industrial heating but who face a critical deadline — June 2030 when the current monopoly supplier, Sasol, will cut of supplies, the so-called “gas cliff". The industrial gas users employ close to 100 000 people. Can they and the State build import terminals and pipelines land long-term gas supply contracts in time? Only the State is big enough to serve as an anchor importer for long-term contracts. "What simply has to happen in order to mitigate the gas cliff? That, that is priority number one,” says Human. "What we're saying to the state is (that)e have now run out of time. We simply have to talk about demand stacking (orders into the future), and that simply means the sequencing and, and addition of gas demand through Eskom, through industry and through private power generation. If we don't get that right, we will sit with a market failure. Right now we see that the government is about to issue or get moving on a gas master plan very shortly, or at least publish something. We’re not sure ... that the gas cliff is sufficiently addressed in that.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    47 min
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Peter Bruce, veteran South African newspaper editor and commentator, interviews the country's social and political leaders and experts in a weekly effort to explain what is actually going on in this complicated country. Bruce's interviews are about making events easy to understand for people with little time to listen.

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