Jacob Zuma has shaped South African politics for nearly two decades. Now uncertainty over his health raises a major question: can the MK Party survive without the man holding it together?

Rob Rose, Zukile Majova and Patrick Smith examine Zuma’s political power, his complicated legacy and the struggle that could follow him inside MK.

They also discuss the ANC’s Constitutional Court battle over 181 excluded election candidates, Rwanda beating South Africa to Formula One and Donald Trump’s reaction to Navi Pillay winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

ActionSA president Herman Mashaba joins Rob Rose and Zukile Majova in studio for episode 28 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

Mashaba makes his position clear: he will not work with Helen Zille. Rob and Zuks question him on his fallout with the DA, his conditions for coalitions and what that means for the fight to govern Johannesburg.

The conversation also covers immigration, his record as mayor and his plans to fix the city. The hosts challenge his claims about undocumented migrants and press him on how he would turn his promises into action.

From building Black Like Me to taking on Joburg’s political battles, Mashaba explains what drives him and why he believes he can win voters back.

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are joined by Gareth van Onselen, CEO of Victory Research, for episode 27 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

Can we trust the polls? Gareth explains how election polling works, what separates good research from bad numbers, and why a poll is a snapshot rather than a prediction. They examine sample sizes, margins of error, political bias and the questions journalists should ask before reporting a headline figure.

The conversation turns to South Africa’s local elections. Gareth unpacks the ANC’s turnout problem, the DA’s prospects in Johannesburg and Tshwane, and the forces behind the rise of MK and the Patriotic Alliance.

They also explore why voters staying home can matter as much as voters changing parties, what the ANC’s candidate-list failures mean for affected municipalities, and how wishful thinking shapes the way we read polls.

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova return for episode 26 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

The pressure is building on Fikile Mbalula. The ANC secretary-general is being blamed for the party’s failure to submit 181 council candidates on time. He also faces Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s vote-buying allegations and threatened legal action from AfriForum over comments about an Eastern Cape school principal.

Rob and Zuks ask whether one of the ANC’s great political survivors has become too much of a liability for the party to protect.

They also examine the crisis at the top of the police, the collapse of Johannesburg’s inner city and the residents being left without basic services.

The episode ends with Donald Trump’s claims about South Africa, the real problem of rural crime, the fight over Starlink and whether Thabo Mbeki could help repair relations with Washington.

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?

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova pay tribute to country music icon Dolly Parton, who died this week aged 80, before turning to the ANC's election manifesto, launched this weekend in Diepsloot, one of the areas where the party has failed to deliver basic services for three decades.

Rob and Zuks pick apart promises of free electricity and water that ring hollow given municipalities owe Eskom over R110 billion, and electricity costs have risen 900% in twenty years. They then dig into the real story behind the ANC's continued refusal to name its mayoral candidates for Johannesburg and other metros. Incumbent Dada Morero remains in the running despite the city's collapse, Loyiso Masuku carries the taint of a Covid-19 era procurement scandal, and veteran Reverend Frank Chikane is being floated as an alternative, though his family reportedly has doubts. Zuks explains why the ANC is stalling right up against the IEC's deadline, fearing a repeat of Jacob Zuma's 2024 strategy of peeling off disgruntled councillors ward by ward.

The conversation turns to the Democratic Alliance's own headache, the fallout from finance spokesperson Mark Burke's exchange control scandal, and what it might mean for donor confidence and the party's carefully built reputation for clean governance.

The episode closes on a story about a motorist who called South Africa's 10111 emergency line to report a mob attack in progress, and was hung up on, and what that says about the state's relationship with the people it's meant to serve.