Is South Africa disintegrating, and would a kiss-cam help?

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The news of the past week has been worrying, from the crisis in the police, to more news about the construction mafia, to SA getting bad press internationally. In this podcast Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss South Africa’s ailments - and some good news too, like the buoyant stock market and the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in KZN achieving an agreed communique. Most importantly, given the meme-of-the week of CEO’s canoodling on the kiss-cam, we have some sage advice for what to do if you find yourself a very surprised global figure at a Coldplay concert. Listen up!
21 Jul English Explicit South Africa News · News Commentary

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