Verdwaal: The Poverty of Indifference!Produced by Frank Ferro
On Special Assignment on January 19, 2012, the team follow-up and expose the story behind the shocking deaths of children in Verdwaal in the North West Province. The post-mortem results confirmed that the children died of hunger and thirst, after they walked for about 10km looking for their parents to give them food.
The investigation reveals that these tragic deaths were unnecessary but that only bureaucratic indifference was to blame. We meet the impoverished family of these children who, for many years, have been struggling to get birth certificates and ID documents from Home Affairs so that they could qualify to access social grants. In fact, as a result of these deaths, another shocking discovery was made.
An entire community of more than 4 000 people was undocumented – which simply means that many of them could not access services. Join us as we explore the issues that affect one community, but are actually a microcosm of many other societies where people continue to live on the margins of society and remain forgotten.
Thursday 19 January 2012 on Special Assignment – SABC 3 at 9pm
For more information:Special Assignment office: (011) 714-6757/8Acting Executive Producer: Busisiwe Ntuli – 083 346 7291Co-ordinator: Menatalie Van Rooyen – 083 241 7670
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