News24 The Lead

There’s more than enough good news to go around, here are News24’s best stories

Loading player...
Between the headlines on disaster, corruption, and crime are stories that delight South Africans. In fact, some of the most read articles on News24 over the past month have been good news stories. News24’s Good News Editor Paul Herman talks to us about how a Kraaifontein man used his R350 grant to build a vegetable produce business, how budding Springbok star Siphosethu Mnebelele overcame the loss of his parents to make the national junior side, and how a Mitchells Plain man came from humble beginnings to be a fine dining head chef. Later, host Graeme Raubenheimer reports that the Joburg Mayor’s calling in the “Bomb Squad” of governance experts, not the Springboks, to fix the City of Gold. And finally, the City of Cape Town says there’s no budget to complete the iconic, unfinished Foreshore freeway bridge. Mail your comments and voice notes to thelead@24.com. Editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. 
8 May English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Iran, Israel conflict explained

Despite calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the Middle Eastern nations have, in recent days, exchanged a volley of missile strikes, adding pressure to a very volatile geopolitical situation. Will America enter the fray, and can South Africa play peacemaker? News24 international correspondent Phillip de Wet provides his…
18 Jun 28 min

Streets of sewage and a ray of light in Krugersdorp, with Sikonathi Mantshantsha

In 2024, News24’s Waste Land exposé uncovered the source of the Gauteng West Rand’s unbearable smell: the old Percy Stewart Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was illegally dumping untreated, heavily polluted water into the Blougatspruit, which feeds into the Hartbeespoort Dam downstream. This raw sewage, seeping into crucial water sources, farms and…
12 Jun 34 min

Wouter Basson vs HPCSA round two, with Tammy Petersen

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) continues in 2025 to push for some form of historical accountability from “Dr Death” Wouter Basson’s involvement in the apartheid government’s secret chemical and biological warfare programme, “Project Coast”. But as News24’s Cape Town journalist Tammy Petersen reports in this edition of…
11 Jun 21 min

The bloody diamond war in Namaqualand with Jacques Pauw (special edition)

For decades, the forgotten, desolate sands of the coastal Namaqualand region of the Northern Cape have offered both illicit diggers and influential tycoons a chance at the big time. The promise of still-hidden diamonds beneath the hot soil has recently attracted all walks of life to a region whose people…
10 Jun 40 min

Meet the Jozi broker who disappeared with millions from friends, family and clients

A “smooth talker” who plied clients with fantastic food and drink, convincing many into handing over their precious millions, only to evade questions when it was time to cough up. This is how numerous clients described the elusive Johannesburg investment broker, Mark Kretzschmar, to News24.Tonight in The Lead, News24 Business journalist…
9 Jun 30 min
All episodes