Another multibillion-rand Chinese energy project red-flagged

Loading player...
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 tsunami of claims swirling around Sinohydro's Oya Hybrid Energy Project outside Sutherland in the Northern Cape. This is not a conversation to miss. First, though, let host broadcast journalist, Graeme Raubenheimer, bring you the breaking news that president Cyril Ramaphosa has put the police's chief financial officer, Puleng Dimpane, in charge of our men and women in blue as acting national commissioner. Later, in our regular segment, On This Day in SA History, the late former AWB leader, Eugene Terreblanche, was sentenced to prison for trying to kill a black worker. Comment below and send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note: 072 562 3179. To advertise: thelead@24.com. Full editions drop on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. The show is fully produced, presented and edited by Raubenheimer and quality-checked by News24's editors.
Chapters
  • 00:01 Breaking News: New acting SAPS commissioner announced
  • 02:07 Graeme's intro to the top story
  • 03:56 Crossing to Ethan on Oya site allegations
  • 17:30 Even claims of sexual harassment?
  • 33:45 On This Day in SA History / Rauby's Quiz
23 Apr English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Return to the Bellville South house of horrors

In this edition, The Lead returns to the Bellville South house of horrors with News24 court and crime journalist, Lisalee Solomons. She reports that 63-year-old Aletta Rose, the murder convict accused of decapitating her Cape Town sister in March, has been giving court and remand prison authorities a headache. Rose, who now…
20 May 26 min

PowerBall? The lotto king’s curious business ties

The licence to operate the Lotto is about to change hands to Sizekhaya Holdings, not without claims of alleged misconduct by those left out of the ultra-lucrative tender. The man steering that outfit is Moses Tembe, a figure who's in business with at least three others precariously close to Deputy…
18 May 39 min

Your ultimate Phala Phala couch catch-up

President Cyril Ramaphosa reckons he's got a fair chance of challenging an independent panel's findings that he may have broken the law in relation to the 2020 theft of a large sum of money from a couch based at his Phala Phala game lodge. But this “Section 89” report, overseen…
13 May 33 min

OR Tambo gold bust haunts SAPS major generals. Plus: Cape storm wrap

We kick off this news week with two more senior police figures in the dock, this time facing serious charges in connection with a peculiar unwrought gold bust at OR Tambo International Airport about five years ago. Major Generals Feroz Khan and Ebrahim Kadwa, and security company boss Tariq Downes,…
11 May 19 min

The City of Gold is bankrupt

The City of Gold is bankrupt. And don't take our word for it, the finance minister says so! Enoch Godongwana has even instructed Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero to halt a R10 billion wage hike for municipal workers, a move that may come back to bite the beleaguered administration. Here, in this…
7 May 20 min