Making sense with Mel’s mates – Finding The One

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. In the town of Despatch in the Eastern Cape, residents sleep with one eye open. On most nights, brazen robbers wielding pangas and guns stalk their streets, breaking in and terrorising the community in their homes. But are these just opportunistic criminals or are they recruits from gangs entrenched in Gqeberha’s inner city? From drug dealing to gun smuggling, the biggest city in the Eastern Cape has long been wracked by criminal enterprises vying for turf. Now, similarly violent operators are making the rural outskirts their stronghold. As residents and private security companies fight back, Carte Blanche investigates why this community has become such an easy target. Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

What went down in episode 4.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟰 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. In November last year, a ten-year-old girl was found during a routine traffic roadblock, squashed inside the luggage compartment of a long-distance bus. She had been smuggled from Zimbabwe into South Africa under extreme conditions for several hours. But her case isn’t unusual. In this months-long investigation, Carte Blanche unravels alleged cross-border human trafficking and the shadowy figures known as transporters who are making it all possible. Undocumented foreign nationals are lured to South Africa from numerous African countries – many of them ending up on the streets of Johannesburg North. Thousands of Malawians are lured into the country on the promise of a new life, some smuggled by long-haul bus companies and funeral parlours, only to be forced into sex work and manual labour. In an even more sinister twist, many of the victims are coerced into taking out funeral policies on themselves once they reach South Africa. It’s an unusual demand but a guaranteed income as the transporters cash in on vulnerable undocumented foreign nationals. Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟯 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯. Portia Marinana, a social worker at Dora Nginza Hospital in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape, loves her work. Every day, she helps make a daunting hospital stay less stressful for nervous and sometimes troubled patients. She never expected having to one day become an amateur detective to solve a case that was baffling the police. It began with an apparently innocent visit to her office by the grandparents of a 7-month-old baby and ended with the arrest of a young woman on charges of kidnapping. Thanks to a sixth sense and dedication to her craft, Portia and her “partner in solving crime” colleague Kaamiela Eagles, a little baby was reunited with his desperate mother. Your favourite episodes are now available on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv