News24 The Lead

Jozi’s construction cartel with alleged links to senior ANC councillor

Loading player...
A top councillor, wearing the ANC colours in the City of Johannesburg, stands accused of meddling in and stalling key public infrastructure developments in Gauteng, extorting payments before work can even start. Sithembiso Zungu, though, has denied the claims, threatening our man on the beat, News24 journalist, Tankiso Makhetha, who joins us in this edition of The Lead. Zungu’s currently the ANC’s Chief Whip in council but it’s his former position of chairperson of the Ward 122 Business Forum, based out of Vlakfontein, that acts as the entry point into saga, the latest of which involves extortion allegedly stalling a local primary school refurbishment project. The influential councillor also allegedly served a short stint behind bars for extorting funds out of the Lehae housing project in Lenasia in 2019. Later in the show, the people of Tembisa protest over high electricity fee hikes. Finally, it’s a rare sighting indeed: Knysna’s only elephant, ‘Oupoot’ has been spotted! 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.
21 Jul English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Oxygen thieves to blame in dodgy R800m tender? With Jan Gerber

An independent investigation into a massive government-sanctioned tender to provide 60 of our country’s hospitals with critical medical-grade oxygen has exposed many serious red flags throughout the procurement process. The DA’s Public Works and Infrastructure Minister in the government of national unity (GNU), Dean Macpherson, launched an investigation into alleged corruption…
30 Jul 32 min

Is northern KZN becoming SA’s new coal belt? With Sakhiseni Nxumalo

The people of Mbabane, a small rural town deep in northern KwaZulu-Natal, have had enough of coal mining in the area. Cracked walls, incessant soot and noise and poor service delivery have come to characterise the small town. The arrival of a local coal mine has brought mixed fortunes for…
28 Jul 41 min

Five months later and we finally have a Budget! With Carol Paton

It’s felt like a never-ending story. But after five gruelling months for the government of national unity (GNU), President Cyril Ramaphosa’s coalition has finally passed a Budget - a critical oil for his administration’s engine to keep running. At the same time, National Treasury’s brought three new measures to ensure we…
24 Jul 35 min

Are INTEC, Damelin failing their students and staff? With Prega Govender

Is Educor setting itself up for deregistration by the government once again? Representing a host of private education institutions, including Damelin College, Educor has in recent years been drowning in a pile of complaints from staff and students about its poor teaching and administrative practices. Well, another of its institutions,…
23 Jul 33 min
All episodes