Three scandals, one theme. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova, joined by Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential, dig into the week the Democratic Alliance turned on itself. Former DA leader Tony Leon’s lobbying firm, Resolve Communications, has allegedly sought audiences with government ministers on behalf of clients including SpaceX’s Starlink, while John Steenhuisen has gone public claiming Geordin Hill-Lewis backstabbed him after striking a deal on the leadership transition. Then they turn to the ANC, where Dina Pule, fired by Jacob Zuma himself in 2013 over a corruption scandal involving her boyfriend, has just been brought back into cabinet as Minister of Social Development. Patrick draws the global thread through both stories, tracing the political revolving door from Dick Cheney and Halliburton through the Blair government to Donald Trump pausing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and asks what happens to a body politic when insiders can freely monetise their old government connections. They close with the continental fallout from the 30 June xenophobia deadline, South African foreign policy’s uncomfortable contradiction of exporting billions in goods to Africa while expelling Africa’s people, and a World Cup catch-up featuring the giant-killing run of Norway, the heartbreak of Cape Verde, and a Paris bar full of French football fans cheering for the underdog.

The June 30 deadline came and went, and South Africa held remarkably steady. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova, joining from Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape, unpack what actually happened and why the anticipated chaos never materialised. Then they go deep on who is really behind March and March. Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, the former Vuma FM broadcaster whose movement grew out of a contract dispute with an ANC MEC. Ngizwe Mchunu, the former Ukhozi FM presenter and self-declared president of the AmaBhinca Nation, previously charged over the July 2021 unrest. And Nkosikhona Ndabandaba, the Shaka iLembe actor who leads the disciplined, king-endorsed Amabutho regiments. Rob and Zuks trace the direct links between March and March and Jacob Zuma's MK Party, including a treasurer who ran on MK's 2024 national election list, and ask whether this entire movement has become a secret weapon for MK ahead of the November elections in KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC stands to lose the eThekwini Metro outright. They also dig into the economics of xenophobia, the R600 million cost of policing the marches, and why chasing out immigrants will not fix an economy growing at under 1 percent. They close on a lighter note with South Africa's historic World Cup run and the giant killings that have defined this tournament.

Sharp Sharp is a weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from Currency News and Scrolla.Africa. New episode every week.

June 30 is days away. March and March have set their deadline and all foreigners must leave South Africa. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into what happens when the deadline hits, whether the security forces can hold it together, and what the Zulu king's extraordinary intervention ahead of June 30 actually means for how this plays out. They also get into Geordin Hill-Lewis removing John Steenhuisen as agriculture minister, the loyalty versus capacity debate in the new DA, and Hill-Lewis's visit to the Zulu king as a blueprint for building a political base beyond the DA's traditional support. Then Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential joins to take it continental. Mnangagwa pushed a constitutional amendment through the Zimbabwean parliament last week to extend his presidential term. Wicknell Chivayo and Kudakwashe Tagwirei bankrolled the votes. The sovereign wealth fund that controls all of Zimbabwe's utilities and mineral wealth has no public oversight. And three million Zimbabweans in South Africa are the direct result of that misgovernance, meaning the pressure on South Africa will not ease until Zimbabwe changes.

Sharp Sharp is a weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from Currency News and Scrolla.Africa. New episode every week.

Fifty years after the Soweto uprising, South Africa's schoolchildren are still being failed. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova mark June 16 with a retrospective that asks not what went wrong but what went right — and finds that racial harmony, against all the odds and against the global trend, is the unexpected success story of post-apartheid South Africa. Then they turn to the ledger of failure. Eighty-one percent of grade four learners cannot read for meaning. Almost a million children drop out before matric. The pass rate is a statistical illusion. BEE has been treated as a goal rather than a tool and produced legalised looting — R65,000 to fix one pothole, R26 for a single-ply toilet roll at Eskom. And the first trillionaire in human history was born in Pretoria three years before June 16 1976, but South Africa blocks his satellite internet service from connecting 5,000 schools that still do not have textbooks by June. They also get into Geordin Hill-Lewis removing John Steenhuisen as agriculture minister, the DA stamping its authority on the GNU, and the World Cup — Bafana losing badly, African nations trolling South Africa with Mexican jerseys, and the Japanese fans who cleaned up the entire stadium after their match.

Sharp Sharp is a weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from Currency News and Scrolla.Africa. New episode every week.

President Cyril Ramaphosa went on national television this week to say South Africans are not xenophobic. But the Human Sciences Research Council data tells a different story — those willing to welcome all immigrants dropped from 26% to 15% in four years, while the bloc that wants no immigrants at all grew from 30% to 42%, the highest hostility on record since 2003. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are joined this week by Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential to dig into the real story behind the headlines. Zuks has a different answer to the data — in his village in Mthatha an Ethiopian shopkeeper has lived inside a South African homestead for decades, protected by community norms, because that is how things actually work on the ground. The marches are real, the frustration is real, but the target is wrong. The real story is a decade of state failure, porous borders, broken promises, and politicians from the ANC to ActionSA using immigrants as a scapegoat in an election year. Patrick widens the lens — Nigeria expelled three million West Africans in 1983, Ghana kicked out half a million Nigerians in 1969, and from Texas to Middlesborough this is a global moment of ethno-nationalism being weaponised by governments everywhere. They close with the World Cup curtain raiser — Bafana Bafana play Mexico tonight and Zuks wants a 2-1 win.

Sharp Sharp is a weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from Currency News and Scrolla.Africa. New episode every week.

A 61-year-old woman in church clothes just beat the ANC in a ward they have held since 1994. Eight votes. Maki Tshabalala, the DA's new Ward 28 councillor in Emfuleni in the Vaal Triangle, wiped the floor with a party that had 90% of that ward in 2011 and is now down to 31%. Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into what it means for the November local government elections, why communities always know their own people better than any party headquarters does, and whether Helen Zille can replicate it in Johannesburg. They also get into the fuel price hitting R28 a litre, the government's decision to quietly reverse the fuel levy relief, and why Joburg residents are paying 65% more for water while being told it is only 12% more. And they close with SAFA, the World Cup, 12 players on the pitch against Nicaragua, visas not ready for Mexico, and the question of whether Bafana getting knocked out early might actually be the best thing that could happen to South African football.

Sharp Sharp is a weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from Currency News and Scrolla.Africa. New episode every week.

Zukile Majova and Rob Rose dig into a week of high political drama as President Cyril Ramaphosa files his affidavit arguing why the Phala Phala impeachment report should be set aside - and why the whole saga looks set to drag well past the November election. The ANC elders are breaking ranks, caretaker presidents are circling, and the succession whispers are getting louder.

Then: Johannesburg. Africa's richest city is effectively bankrupt, its roads are disintegrating, and the mayor wants to hire more executives to oversee the chaos. Rob and Zuks debate whether anyone - Helen Zille included - can actually fix a city that needs a miracle.

And Bafana Bafana head to the World Cup. Can they finally escape the group stage? Rob and Zuks dare to hope.

Sharp Sharp is hosted by Rob Rose of Currency News and Zukile Majova of Scrolla.Africa.

South Africa increasingly resembles a mafia state, where it can cost as little as R2,000 to organise a hit. This week, Rob Rose and Zukile Majova dig into the case of taxi boss Joe "Ferrari" Sibanyoni, and the prosecutor who was too scared to show up in court. From cut-price hired hitmen to the brazen killing of AKA on Florida Road, they ask whether the rule of law has simply collapsed in the face of organised crime.
The taxi industry's grip extends far beyond South Africa. Special guest Patrick Smith, editorial director of Africa Confidential, joins to unpack the Matatu strike that brought Kenya's capital to a standstill, and what it reveals about who really holds power across the continent.
Then: the Iran war's ripple effects on African fuel prices, shipping backlogs, and food security — and why one man is coining it. Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, has built the world's largest single-process oil refinery. With oil at $105 a barrel and the Strait of Hormuz closed, his timing looks like genius.
Sharp Sharp is hosted by Rob Rose of Currency News and Zukile Majova of Scrolla.Africa.