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Dec 06, 2005 |
2005
Highlights- Special Assignment highlights the stories in
2005 that made an impact. We put the spotlight on corrupt police
members who got caught out. We look at the public servants who
were filmed taking bribes and we follow the actions of those in
high places who were seen committing indiscretions. We revisit
some of these stories… and update you on what has happened
since. We also feature the stories that took the honours in
2005.
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Nov 29, 2005 |
On the Highway- This Tuesday
Special Assignment joins a long-distance trucker on the road to
experience life aboard a twenty-six wheeler. Extreme loneliness
and fatigue are part of this lifestyle, relieved occasionally by
the company of fellow truckers - and sex workers – at the truck
stops on our major highways.
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Nov 22, 2005 |
Without
A Trace - This Tuesday
Special Assignment delves into the mysterious disappearance two
years ago of Eldorado Park schoolteacher, Therese Jacobus. Her
body was never found and although the woman’s estranged husband
was arrested all charges were subsequently dropped against him.
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Nov 15, 2005 |
Tino's
Monument To Democracy - This Tuesday,
Special Assignment
relates the strange story of a man who thought his
constitutional rights to freedom and security would protect him
from burglaries and robberies - and how he has suffered the
consequences.
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Nov 08, 2005 |
Cat and Mouse
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As law enforcers take on the
drug cartels, a dangerous game of cat and
mouse is being played out. Who has the upper
hand? And is it a game that any side can
win? This Tuesday Special Assignment investigates
the methods used by the drug lords and some of the strategies
put in place to counter the threat.
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Nov 01, 2005 |
The other
side of Eden
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The recent release of horrifying statistics
on farm-worker evictions has thrown the
spotlight on some of the most marginalised
members of South Africa’s labour force,
rural farm workers and dwellers. But behind
every statistic is a name, a face and a
personal story.
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Oct 25, 2005 |
Saving a Generation -
Unlike our own
country, Botswana has
done almost everything right in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Yet
large numbers of children continue to die of AIDS-related
illnesses. This beautifully filmed documentary gives a human
face to the tragedy of children with HIV and its screening marks
the launch of a global project aimed at meeting the needs of
children affected by the virus.
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Oct 18, 2005 |
Eye on the Child -
As South Africans
react with horror to the recent spate of child rapes, murders
and abductions, Special Assignment investigates this shocking
phenomenon. We ask why men perpetrate these violent crimes and
what can be done about them.
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Oct 11, 2005 |
Scoop and Go - As you head off on holiday, take special care
on the roads. If you have an accident in certain parts of the
country, you could wait in vain for help to arrive. In other
areas a vehicle might arrive – but without essential life-saving
equipment. This Tuesday
Special Assignment investigates the state of
ambulance services in some of our provinces.
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Oct 04, 2005 |
Alex the Scrap yard - Residents of
Alexandra township in Johannesburg are angry. They say their
lives are no better than they were four years ago, when a
project aimed at renewing the area was initiated. They feel
they’ve been let down and they want to know why.
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Sept27, 2005 |
Racism in Jhb - Ten
years of democracy have brought huge changes
to the city’s club scene. A generation that
once partied in Soweto and Hillbrow, now head for Joburg’s leafy
northern suburbs. But not everyone is happy with these
developments.
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Sept20, 2005 |
Turning the Tide - This Tuesday
Special Assignment investigates why some police members succumb
to the lure of easy money. We also explore what the SAPS is
doing to turn this tide and to win back the trust of the
community.
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Sept13, 2005 |
Kwere- Kwere
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Following our expose of extortion and bribery
by the Booysens police last week, we now look at the experience
of a Congolese woman who was allegedly beaten with a wheel
spanner by the Booysens “raiding squad”.
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Sept 6, 2005 |
Room A6
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Extortion,
corruption and intimidation are at the heart
of this Tuesday’s Special Assignment. In an
extraordinary exposé, we unmask corrupt
government officials who are on the take.
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Aug30,2005
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Minor Exposure
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week Special Assignment investigates
the dark sordid world of child pornography. Townships
are perfect hunting grounds for paedophiles recruiting children
for pornography.
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| Aug23,
2005 |
The New African -
Skills, or the lack of them, seem to be on every politician’s
lips of late. This Tuesday
Special Assignment zooms in on the issue and
specifically focuses on skilled African professionals working
and living in South Africa.
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| Aug 16,
2005 |
Risky Business - This week Special Assignment investigates
how effective the law is in protecting whistleblowers. We tell the
story of three whistleblowers who each exposed corruption in a
different way but ended up being victimised in the same way.
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| Aug 9,
2005 |
White Lies - Great White shark attacks on people are rare, considering
their ubiquitous presence in the ocean and the vast increases
in the number of people utilising the ocean. Yet each time an
attack occurs the monster-myth resurfaces. -
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| Aug 2,
2005 |
Heavyweight
- In South Africa,
almost a third of all adult males and more than half of all
our women are overweight. Obesity is on the increase and the
Heart Foundation says as a nation we are a
ticking time bomb of chronic diseases.
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| Jul 26,
2005 |
London under
attack - We are proud to present a BBC investigation into the
terrorist threat facing governments seen as supporting the
US-led invasion of Iraq. A crucial
finding is that al Qaeda hasn’t gone away - it’s just shut
down its head office.
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| Jul 19,
2005 |
"Airport
Security" and "Carlos and Dadinha"
- A double bill,
in our first story we visit Johannesburg
International Airport to review the safety
and security of our gateway to the world.
Secondly, a good news story: we meet up
with former heroin addicts Carlos and Dadinha who have almost miraculously
turned their backs on drugs and now lead
productive lives.
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| Jul 12,
2005 |
Shrinking shelves
- Recent research indicates
that one in 50 people worldwide are
shoplifters. The situation is no
different in South Africa, where a single
store can lose up to R2 million a year to
shrinkage.
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| Jul 5,
2005 |
Shattered Dreams - Special
Assignment tracks the unfolding tragedy in
Cape Town, where addiction to crystal
methamphetamine is spreading among teenagers
faster than anywhere else in the world.
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| Jun 28,
2005 |
The Winter of
discontent - Special
Assignment investigates the housing riots
that recently swept through Cape Town’s
townships. We join the activists fighting
for housing and document two weeks in the
life of one community in Khayelitsha. We
show the planning meetings, the protests and
the burning barricades.
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| Jun
21, 2005 |
In search of a miracle
- We join two million worshippers at a
miracle healing crusade in Nigeria. Many in
the crowd have come hoping to change their
lives through miracles.
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| Jun
14, 2005 |
Sink or Swim
- Bishops is a top private school in Cape
Town. In primary school the boys all take
Xhosa as a subject. But when they are given
a science lesson in Xhosa, they grope around
for answers, unable to master a lesson that
most of them would easily learn in English.
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| Jun 7,
2005 |
Pay up - Ending a
marriage is usually a traumatic experience –
especially when there are young children
involved. Feelings of bitterness and
betrayal are often made worse when one
parent refuses to help support the children.
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| May 31,
2005 |
No
Special Assignment due to extended Survivor
Vanuatu program |
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| May 24,
2005 |
Downhill - We venture into the heart of Port
Elizabeth’s inner city, where Nigerian pimps
and South African prostitutes live in
mutually dependent relationships. “We are not the ones
teaching these women to smoke drugs. The
white man smokes drugs more than any others
– they pick up the girls and like to tell
them to smoke. It is not us Nigerians.”
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| May 17,
2005 |
Ten years on:
the station strangler -
On the Cape Flats,
children continue to be murdered in
alarmingly high numbers or simply to
disappear. The community is angry and feel
that ten years after the notorious station
strangler was sentenced, still not enough is
being done by the authorities to keep their
children safe from predators.
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| May 10,
2005 |
Ejo'burg
....esidididini -
They call them “sink
holes” or “bad buildings”, the many derelict
buildings in Jo’burg’s inner city. They have
been abandoned by their owners and now house
illegal tenants who live in squalor and
fear. Toilets overflow, pipes leak and
refuse piles up in the stairwells.
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| May 3,
2005 |
The day
Prince came to town -
We return
to Beaufort West in the
Western Cape to further investigate Central Karoo municipal manager Truman Prince.
Prince is the high ranking ANC official who
was caught on camera allegedly soliciting
young girls in a previous Special Assignment
programme.
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| Apr 26,
2005 |
In the name of my
father - We investigate the abuse and exploitation taking
place in certain “private” homes for the elderly. Dotted
across the traditional white working class areas of Cape Town
are what seem to be regular residential homes. Take a closer
look and they turn out to be “boarding homes” for the elderly
and the disabled.
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| Apr 19,
2005 |
Zimbabwe my home -
Three young Zimbabweans as they leave the
crowded flats of Hillbrow to return home for the first time in
many years. Through their eyes we see what life is really like
for ordinary people there.
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| Apr 12,
2005 |
Curb the
Vengeance - South African prisons are bursting at the
seams. We have the largest number of prisoners in Africa, with
185 thousand South Africans incarcerated. Problem is there is
only space for 115 thousand inmates.
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| Apr 5,
2005 |
Dangerous
exposure - Are some
workers in the steel industry being poisoned on the job? Are
their employers in denial and just passing the buck? Is anyone
actually policing health and safety standards? And ultimately,
are we a society that cares about its workers?
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| Mar 29,
2005 |
Nollywood
dreams - Nollywood is now
the third biggest movie industry in the world after
Hollywood and
India’s Bollywood. Nollywood releases almost a thousand movies
every year and in Lagos alone, there are 5 000 registered
actors. Yet, there are no movie houses in Nigeria.
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| Mar 22,
2005 |
Like Lambs -
For a parent, there is nothing more agonising than the death
or disappearance of one’s child. Special Assignment investigates the alarming
increase in abductions and murders of children on the Cape
Flats.
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Mar 15, 2005 |
The Local Front - In the past six
months, residents of many towns have taken to the streets to
protest lack of delivery, expressing their anger by burning tyres
and smashing vehicles. They feel their lives have not changed for
the better since 1994 and accuse local councillors of greed and
corruption.
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Mar 8, 2005 |
Shot of Love - Carlos and Dadinha
- once again we meet up with Carlos and Dadinha,
two former heroin addicts whose lives we have followed since 2003.
They are living together in Maputo, having spent months apart in
rehab in Johannesburg. Both are now on back on heroin. Both are
HIV positive.
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Mar 1, 2005 |
Up Hill
- We take you to
the Eastern Cape and to the inner city of Port Elizabeth, which
boasts some of the most beautiful and historic architecture in
South Africa. But it’s also a place where underage sex, drugs and
illegal immigrants have taken root in the very heart of our
heritage.
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| Feb 22,
2005 |
Vhabvannda
- Foreigners, Corruption and Identity -
We
expose the
fraudulent ways illegal immigrants get hold of IDs in South Africa
and the corrupt South Africans who assist them. It is estimated
that 2000 Zimbabweans cross the border every week into South
Africa.
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| Feb
15, 2005 |
Truck Stop - Using a hidden camera, we observe teenagers as young as 14
socialising with truckers and passing motorists at local nightclubs. From
deprived backgrounds, the girls offer sexual favours in exchange for alcohol,
food and clothes. |
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| Feb 8, 2005 |
Anatomy of a coup - This documentary reveals how it was planned and financed and who blew the whistle.
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Feb 1, 2005 |
Sold
Out - we take a look at the building frenzy that has hit the Garden Route
. Golf and Polo Estates and massive residential developments are changing the
face of this region forever. We ask is South Africa 's third largest tourism
attraction under threat or is this a hysterical over reaction from those who
fear progress?
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| Jan 25, 2005 |
Spear Cleansing - The remarkable story of two South Africans on a quest for forgiveness. Separated by race, gender and their own painful histories, the two finally manage to let go of the past and to plot a groundbreaking path for others to follow.
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Jan 18, 2005 |
Indecent Exposure - In
the first programme of the new season, Special Assignment joins
one man on a mission to find the predatory paedophile who had
sexually abused him in his youth. Grant Wright came close to
suicide before realising that the demons chasing him came from
his having been sexually abused at the age of nine.
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Nov 30, 2004 |
Operation Priscilla - In
the final programme of the year, Special Assignment
penetrates a countrywide child sex syndicate run by Nigerians.
We show you how they abuse girls as young as 10, how they force
drugs on them to enslave them and how they use rape to keep them
in line.
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Special Assignment 2004
Special Assignment
2003
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| To order copies of programmes, contact Business Enterprises at: Phone: (011) 714 8066, Fax: (011) 714 8075 or email
page by Steven
Lang
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