Coming up on Carte Blanche‎ on M-Net & M-Net HD [101], Sunday 26 January 2025 at 19:00

Stilfontein: Trapped in the Deep
Desperate and dying, more than 300 illegal miners spent months trapped in an abandoned mine shaft in Stilfontein in the North West in a prolonged and – for many – fatal standoff with authorities. Desperate families visited the site daily as letters and videos emerged from the depths, claiming that the miners were starving to death after police had stopped food supplies. Last week, the stalemate finally ended as 246 emaciated men and 78 bodies were pulled to the surface. These miners are just some of the thousands of zama zamas digging in and around old mines in Klerksdorp, Stilfontein and Orkney. As illegal mining continues to surge across the country, could more have been done to save the lives lost in this disaster?

Producer: Graham Coetzer
Presenter: Govan Whittles
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Antivenom Crisis
Christiaan Mahne was catching frogs in a shallow pond in Limpopo when he felt a sharp pain near his wrist and jerked it out of the water just in time to see a snake with its teeth sunk into his arm. He had been bitten by a snouted cobra. While Christiaan received antivenom, he is still undergoing intense treatment for tissue damage caused by the venomous bite. He is one of the lucky ones. In just the last year, a 10-year-old boy in the Eastern Cape and a man in Limpopo both died from snake bites. Since the COVID pandemic, antivenom production has slowed in South Africa, leaving people and pets at risk. Carte Blanche examines what is driving the crisis.

Producer: Nicky Troll
Presenter: Masa Kekana
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Swak to Strength
‘Swak’ – that was the newspaper headline that, back in January 2024, propelled Professor Jonathan Jansen to take action. The headline, emblazoned on The Voice’s website, referred to Crestway High School – a school derided by many for obtaining the lowest matric pass rate in the Western Cape. Situated in Retreat, the high school saw a mere 37 out of 103 matriculants passing the national exam. It was also the only school in the province to have a pass rate well below 40%. Prof. Jansen simply couldn’t look the other way., not only because of his intense passion for education, but because he also realised Crestway High was next door to his childhood home. A strong believer in the notion that charity begins at home, the good Prof. put his hand up and, in collaboration with the highly dedicated teachers at the school, made a commitment to turn things around. Now, a year later, Crestway High’s matriculants have shown great progress and are turning their “swak” into “strength”.

Producer: Marion Edmunds
Presenter: Erin Bates

Carte Blanche: The Podcast
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