The ANC is heading for about 32% in the local government elections, down from 62% in 2011. Frans Cronje explains where its voters went: not to the DA, which has held steady at around 26%, but to the MKP, the EFF, and ActionSA.

In Johannesburg, the ANC is projected at around 20%, and it sits third behind the DA and ActionSA in Tshwane.

And for the first time, the ANC, MKP, and EFF together fall short of 50% nationally. The panel asks whether the DA should do a deal with the ANC, or whether the DA and ActionSA can put their feud aside long enough to run Gauteng’s metros.

Richard Tren also discusses the US midterms: a Republican wipeout, James Talarico’s win over Ken Paxton in Texas, Susan Collins’s defeat in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and Alaska’s two Dan Sullivans. Simon Lincoln Reader also talks about Britain’s budget and the Caribbean’s $33 trillion demand for slavery reparations.

The panel ends by providing historical context on the West Africa Squadron, the Royal Navy patrol that freed some 150 000 people from slave ships.