News24 The Lead

SA steels itself against plant closures

Loading player...
Three thousand five hundred jobs hang in the balance if ArcelorMittal were to close its two long steel plants in Vereeniging and Newcastle. Towns will be decimated and local economies crushed. Will the government's plan of hiking steel import tariffs protect local steelmakers' future? This could be critical to saving the country's manufacturing sector and economy, which is already struggling to realise hopes of 2% annual growth. Specialist journalist Lisa Steyn explains the intricacies. Later, we bring you the latest on Trump’s choice of ambassador to South Africa. We conclude by looking at the myriad global superstars like Kenny G and Doja Cat, who are preparing to tour Mzansi in 2025. Get involved in the conversation, email us your views, news and voice notes to thelead@24.com. Editions will drop Monday through Thursday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 19:00.
Chapters
  • 00:01 Graeme's Intro
  • 01:22 Interview with Lisa Steyn
  • 14:18 Trending topic: Trump's ambassador to SA
  • 15:37 And finally: Mzansi's magic music scene
  • 16:54 The Weekender
  • 17:16 Graeme's Outro
27 Mar 2025 English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Media storm as SIU probes lottery funds linked to editor

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has set the cat among the pigeons in Mzansi’s news media world this week. The SIU red-flagged more than half a million rand from the National Lotteries Commission, which in 2018 found its way to a communications company formerly belonging to the current Sunday Times…
29 Apr 29 min

Another multibillion-rand Chinese energy project red-flagged

A global Chinese construction giant and its staff overseeing a gargantuan wind and solar farm in the Karoo are facing mounting allegations of not only breaches of health and safety regulations, but also environmental violations, and even sexual harassment. Specialist climate journalist, Ethan van Diemen, has spent many months investigating the…
23 Apr 36 min

Fannie Nkosi shares a prison with the ‘Cat’ in Pretoria

He's been close to the notorious “Cat” before. And now he'll be even closer to alleged criminal tender don Vusimusi Matlala, as they share the same prison in Pretoria ahead of their respective trials. Facing unlawful firearm possession and obstruction of justice charges, suspended police sergeant Fannie Nkosi has now…
22 Apr 18 min

Dark clouds gather over SA’s largest solar project, with Azarrah Karrim

It's a multibillion-rand solar panel farm, said to be the most ambitious of its kind on African soil, all to boost our rehabilitated energy grid. Yet, in her investigations, News24 journalist Azarrah Karrim has unearthed a series of alleged red flags in the Chinese state company-led construction of the Virginia…
20 Apr 24 min

Herman Mashaba on refusing to work with Zille, declining a Cabinet post

He led Mzansi's newest green party to fifth place in the 2021 municipal polls, so the question is: what will it take for Herman Mashaba's ActionSA to do it again in 2026? The founder of Black Like Me is our guest this Newsmaker Thursday on News24's The Lead. Mashaba insists…
16 Apr 50 min
All episodes