Commercial success

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟯𝟭 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. In KwaZulu-Natal, commercial farmers are on edge. While they own the land they farm on, government owns the minerals that lie underneath, and it’s giving scores of upstart coal companies prospecting licences and rights to mine. Tensions between farmers and mining groups in Newcastle are at an all-time high as the coal prospectors move in by the dozen to mine what’s left of the area’s coal reserve. For farmers, what’s equally concerning is the risk to vital water sources like the town’s main dam that provides drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people. Who are these opportunistic mining companies and why are they being allowed to mine in sensitive and protected areas? Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟭 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. War is brewing in the Red Sea as Yemen’s Houthi rebel forces launch attacks on commercial ships in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza. For multinational companies trading and shipping between Asia and Europe, the Suez Canal has now become a high-risk zone. This hostile disruption in world trade has created an opportunity for South Africa to boost its own flagging economy by offering services to ships re-routed past the Cape. It is an extraordinary detour, with hundreds of ships sailing for an extra 10 to 14 days to ensure safe passage through calmer African waters. But these ships appear to be giving South Africa a wide berth, preferring more efficient refuelling stops in Namibia and Mozambique. Why was Transnet so ill-prepared to take advantage of this potential economic windfall? Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

Watch the fourth and final season of Succession. Watch season 4 from Mondays to Fridays on M-Net channel 101, starting Friday 15 December.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟯 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯. He was a model citizen in the farming community of Barkly East in the Eastern Cape. A God-fearing commercial farmer with a loyal circle of friends. He was wealthy, too, by all accounts and promised similar riches for some of his closest friends and several others from a lucrative investment project. It was a simple blueprint: his investors would buy cattle and sheep and he would farm them on their behalf. Leaning on their shared religious devotion, his investment base grew impressively and his scheme blossomed into a multi-million rand operation. Then, as they so often do, things turned sour and what appeared a legitimate and profitable business imploded. The investors, the majority of whom are pensioners, lost everything. Carte Blanche investigates. Your favourite episodes are now available on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv