Sound Africa

In January 2015 the killing of the 14-year old Siphiwe Mahori in Snake Park, Soweto ignited a major wave of xenophobic attacks as across South Africa. Siphiwe Mahori was shot by a Somali shopkeeper who said he was fearing for his life. The story was international news, but quickly forgotten. “One Night in Snake Park” investigates the killing of Siphiwe Mahori. Why was the shooter let off with a suspended sentence? Why was his shop attacked? Why do xenophobic attacks keep happening? Why did Siphiwe have to die? This podcast is made with the support of a Taco Kuiper Investigative Journalism grant. Sound Africa is supported by Hindenburg Systems and the Open Society Foundation’s Program for Independent Journalism.

In this our final episode, will look at COVID-19 funds and how they are being distributed in South Africa and Nigeria, We also look at some rays of hope which are starting to emerge from Kibera, one of Kenya’s biggest slums. Finally we will be discussing what happens behind the scenes of the Covid-In Africa podcast, and look to the future, on what’s next for Sound Africa.

This episode of Covid in Africa deals with gender based violence and the recent spike in violence following the relaxing of some Covid-19 restrictions.

This week we look at how Covid-19 effects artists across the continent. We hear from artists in Senegal, Uganda, South Africa and Tanzania.

This week alcohol was sold legally for the first time in months in South Africa where Covid-19 regulations were lowered from level 4 to level 3. We look at what happened as well as get an update from Senegal where the brother of the president recently tested positive for the virus.

In this episode we look into the potential impact of Covid-19 measures on highly indebted African countries

This week we look into how the Coronavirus is changing public perceptions of African Knowledge Systems - particularly traditional medication.

In this episode we are focusing on homeschooling and how it is being implemented in different contexts on the continent. We will hear from a parent who is trying to balance working from home, parenting and homeschooling all at the same time and from a clinical psychologist and Executive Life coach Zsofia Borisanyi explains how Covid-19 is changing corporate culture.

In this week's episode of Covid In Africa, we examine how geography and space in densely populated African cities determines the effectiveness of measures to control the spread of the corona virus. We speak to Prof. Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, visiting Fellow at the Oxford Department of International Development.

In this episode we focus on Human Rights under Covid, what they are and how they can be protected.

In today's show we will get a glimpse into how people are coping with the corona virus in Central Africa. And our producer Rasmus Bitsch is back with the story of a group of African refugees in Cape Town, whose struggle to leave South Africa so far has landed them in a crowded tent outside the city.

In this episode we discuss strategies of coping mentally with covid and lockdown and get a report from Mozambique, where the pandemic and militant islamists pose a dual threat.

Along with the corona virus another pandemic is spreading. Fake news and conspiracy theories. But it is difficult to sort fact from fiction in a time where even scientists aren't sure exactly what is going on. Music by: Podington Bear and Xylo Ziko

Lockdown - Many African countries are undergoing lockdowns to fight the spread of the Corona virus. In some places, governments justify human rights violations in the name of public health. And even if we can go out safely, the world has changed dramatically in the last week.

A weekly podcast looking at the continental response to COVID-19 and how it’s affecting people on the ground. Here you will hear about some of the systemic, under-reported issues underlying the coronavirus crisis in Africa. In this episode, one of our reporters get tested for Covid-19 and we speak to journalist Lam Bah in Freetown, Sierra Leone to find out what we can all learn from their experience fighting Ebola.

The final episode of They Killed Dulcie takes a critical look at what happened to the investigations of Dulcie September’s murder. So pervasive is the impunity for the economic crimes that sustained apartheid, that Dulcie September’s tenacious struggle for freedom was abruptly ended without redress. Why were victims like Dulcie forgotten, and why were the perpetrators allowed to go free? Before her murder, Dulcie September was investigating the global networks that financed and armed the apartheid regime. So far, They Killed Dulcie has explored why she was assassinated and looked at the corporations, spies and arms dealers who may have had a hand in Dulcie’s murder. As will be seen in the podcast, some of the same corporations Dulcie was investigating have continued to do business with the post-apartheid government. Why were Dulcie September’s comrades, today’s leaders, so eager to make friends of their old enemies? Dulcie, however, has been erased from South Africa’s history books, though not entirely fro

In this episode, we unveil the murky world behind the Danish shipping industry’s pristine façade. In Dulcie’s handwritten notes, Danish ships and companies are exposed as integral to the apartheid regime’s arms money machinery. We tell the story of these companies, and their extensive role in arming the apartheid regime in contravention of UN sanctions. In the late 1970s, complaints from crew members on Danish ships kickstarted a union-led investigation into illegal arms smuggling to apartheid South Africa on Danish vessels. This episode of They Killed Dulcie tells the story of an evasive shipowner and the seafarers who joined the anti-apartheid struggle. The Seafarer’s Union begins an investigation that takes them across the world to find evidence that disproves the claims of ethical behaviour by the Danish shipping industry.

Podcast: They Killed Dulcie - Episode 6: Woman in Exile Episode 6. Dulcie September’s life was shaped by struggle against injustice. As a freedom fighter, she boldly confronted gender based discrimination, even amongst her allies. In this episode we take a deeper look at the discrimination Dulcie September’s experienced and reflect on the experiences of women in the struggle for South Africa’s freedom. We hear from writers and thinkers and fighters. Dulcie Septembers role in the struggle has been erased by many. The same can be said of the apartheid supporting Belgian businessman, banker and politician André Vlerick. He was at the centre of the arms money machine – yet his legacy is still celebrated today. We walk the streets in Belgian and ask why? If you haven’t heard the first five episodes of the podcast you can find them here.

For almost two decades starting in the 1970’s the South African embassy in Paris was the centre of a large scale sanctions busting operation. It was connected to the arms dealers, spies and banks that formed part of the arms money machine. In episode five They Killed Dulcie, we find out if this top secret operation was connected to the murder of Dulcie September. On the banks of the river Seine, the South African embassy in Paris was a common site for anti-apartheid demonstrations. Unbeknownst to the activists outside, an entire floor of the embassy housed Armscor staff running a sophisticated sanctions busting operation. They armed the apartheid security forces to the teeth. Moving the cash to buy guns required the complicity of powerful European banks who profited from their role in the arms money machine. The evidence suggests that Dulcie September was investigating parts of this sinister machinery shortly before her murder. If she had succeeded the consequence would have been dire for plutocrats, ban

In the fourth episode of the podcast They Killed Dulcie, the time has come to look at the evidence. What was Dulcie investigating when she was killed? We dust off archival documents found by Open Secrets that provide important clues. These documents once buried in archives across the world help us understand the secret network of intelligence agents, arms dealers and bankers, who made their fortunes by arming and sustaining the apartheid government. We also find Dulcie September's personal notes not seized by intelligence agencies and double agents. Through scribbles and notes we begin to understand how Dulcie was investigating the murky networks of apartheid profiteers which for far too long have remained unexposed. If Dulcie was trying to expose the illicit arms trade connecting South Africa and countries like France was this the reason that an assassin was ordered to have her “removed from the equation?”