Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are joined by Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential for episode 25 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

The Trump administration has announced targeted visa restrictions for foreign nationals involved in race based discrimination, repeating its claims that South Africa is persecuting Afrikaners. Rob, Zuks and Patrick ask why Washington remains committed to this distorted picture, what it could mean for business and diplomacy, and whether anyone can repair relations between the two countries.

The conversation turns to the women whose bodies were found across Ekurhuleni. The team examines South Africa's failure to confront gender based violence, the collapse of trust in the police and why crime has not become a major election issue.

They also unpack Fikile Mbalula's court battle with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma over allegations of vote buying within the ANC. Mbalula denies the claims. The episode ends with Africa's successful campaign for the United Nations to use maps that show the continent at its true scale.

New episodes every week.

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova return for episode 24 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

The ANC failed one of the most basic tests facing any political party: submitting all its candidates for an election. Nearly 200 ANC candidates across several municipalities could be affected after the party missed the IEC’s deadline. Rob and Zuks ask what the failure reveals about the collapse of the ANC’s internal machinery and whether secretary-general Fikile Mbalula will be held accountable.

With November’s local elections approaching, Mbalula has admitted that a disastrous result could bring down the ANC leadership before its 2027 conference. The conversation turns to the succession battle and why electoral chaos could strengthen Paul Mashatile while Patrice Motsepe and Zweli Mkhize remain possible challengers.

Then comes the bigger question: what happens to South Africa if the ANC collapses? Rob and Zuks examine whether the DA is broad enough to replace it, the danger of the EFF and MK Party filling the vacuum, and why the ANC’s decline may need to be managed without allowing the country to collapse alongside it.

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are joined by Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential for episode 23 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

The week began with two Airlink jets flying dramatically low over Cape Town Stadium ahead of the Springboks and All Blacks Test, sparking a global safety debate. Rob and Zuks use it as the perfect metaphor for a party that never seems to plan ahead, the ANC, which missed the IEC's deadline to submit candidate lists in several Eastern Cape municipalities, risking being locked out of contesting those areas entirely.

From there, the conversation turns to deputy president Paul Mashatile's prolonged and largely unexplained absence from public life, and Zuks makes the case for why Mashatile may have little incentive to campaign hard for an ANC win right now.

Patrick joins for a deep dive into Zambia, where president Hakainde Hichilema was sworn in for a second term this week under deepening controversy. Notably absent from the inauguration was South Africa's own president, Cyril Ramaphosa. The team unpacks the international response, the ongoing legal fight over former president Edgar Lungu's body, and asks a bigger question, why doesn't popular anger over stolen elections and rising costs ever seem to topple governments in this part of Africa?