In this episode of 'Boots On The Ground', we follow a pupil to a rural school. Among the issues we hear about are drug use at primary schools, a school with only two teachers for nine subjects, and we speak to civil organisations. About 41% of pupils who started school 12 years ago did not make it to grade 12 last year. We go on the ground to determine the real impact of the most disadvantaged schools and pupils. The Schools Act compels the education department to follow up on dropouts by...

In February 2018 assassins murdered Bulgarian couple Angelo Dimov and Nessie Peeva in their home at around 11 am in the Cape Town suburb of Bergvliet. It was not a house burglary gone wrong, it was a hit ordered by a British cocaine dealer who felt he was double crossed. There was more to Dimov and Peeva than their friends in the Cape Town southern suburbs knew. Dimov was an alleged member of the Bulgarian mafia, a secretive criminal organisation which would go from successfully cloning...

It’s February 2014 and Hawks Warrant Officer Johan Combrinck has received a tip-off through Interpol that Bulgarian men were busy constructing a large drug lab in a mansion in the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville. On the evening of 24 February Combrinck parked his car opposite the house and conducted a steak-out. The smell of sulphur was in the air, a sign to Combrinck that chemicals used for processing drugs were nearby. In the house Combrinck could see movement. And then a man wearing a...

Out there with the legendary Flying Dutchman is a fleet of 'ghost ships' trafficking cocaine from South America to destinations around the globe. They are invisible to satellites and tracking systems and make lonely voyages undetected, sometimes across rough seas. The Atlantic Warrior is one of them. She belongs to the Bulgarian Mafia and trafficked cocaine from Brazil to Saldanha Bay off the South African West Coast. She is now missing after TimesLIVE Investigations journalist Aron Hyman...

On March 1 2021 the Windward, a Bulgarian mafia cocaine ship, was three days behind schedule docking at Saldanha Bay harbour on SA’s west coast. Bulgarian cocaine fleet manager Asen Ivanov and his Bulgarian associates were waiting, probably worried their Myanmar crew had become lost in thick fog or rough seas.  Unbeknown to him, he had much bigger problems because watching the mafia’s every move was Lt-Col Johan Smit and members of the Western Cape police’s narcotics unit. When the drug...

Following the fall of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, Bulgaria was plunged into economic crisis.  As the country tried to rebuild in the new global dispensation, many Bulgarians emigrated in search of greener pastures — and some chose the  freshly free South Africa. Among them was a group of  criminals who would come to be known as the Bulgarian mafia.  Members of this shadowy enterprise brought the first credit card cloning devices to South Africa in the late 1990s. Initially, the Bulgarian...

One of the biggest cocaine busts in South Africa’s history, on the misty shores of Saldanha Bay, lifted the lid on an international drug-smuggling ring led by the Bulgarian mafia. But the syndicate brought more than just the drug to this country's shores. Cape of Cocaine is a mini podcast series unpacking the group's operations and its dealings in South Africa. It's a tale of drugs, ghost ships, corruption and assassinations. Join me, Orrin Singh, every Monday from November 14 as I delve into...

The horrific crash between a truck and bakkie that claimed the lives of 20 people, including 18 pupils, on the N2 in Pongola, northern KwaZulu-Natal, on September 16 has shone a spotlight on the cracks in SA's road freight industry.  The rising global demand for coal caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine has hurt the local trucking industry as it races to meet growing export demands amid a crisis. This increased demand has resulted in more heavy vehicles on SA's national roads, particularly...

Welcome to Royal Rumble, a short podcast series. This series is dedicated to celebrating the amaZulu Monarchy and its traditions; while unravelling the complicated power dynamics associated with traditional succession and leadership. In this first episode of our three part series, we focus on the significance of traditional leadership and the contradictory parallel existence of a constitutional democracy and a traditional monarchy within SA. SA already has a president, so why do its...

In today’s episode of Boots on the Ground, behind SA’s biggest headlines we commemorate the bloodiest days in our democratic history, by not only reliving what our country went through, but also trying to make sense of it. You will hear testimony from looters themselves, who saw an opportunity and took it, community members who witnessed racial tension rip through their hometowns, vigilantes justifying gun-toting to protect their homes and recollections from journalists on the ground.  

The government is repatriating hundreds of South Africans and their families, who for years fought for and aided the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, providing them with new identity documents and a means to resettle. A TimesLIVE investigation can reveal the repatriations — done through the international relations and cooperation and home affairs departments, with the State Security Agency’s (SSA) approval — began in 2019, shortly after IS’s caliphate in Syria and Iraq collapsed. The...

In today’s episode of “Boots on the ground: Behind SA’s national headlines”, we dive into the state of psychiatric healthcare in SA, particularly in some of Gauteng's public hospitals in the inner cities and townships. We look at the challenges faced by hospitals when it comes to the treatment of psychiatric patients and how they have affected their staff and other patients, and what is being done to address this worsening issue.

In today’s episode of Boots on the ground: behind South Africa’s national headlines, we dive into the secretive, underground world of ransom kidnappings. Why has this kind of organized crime become so prevalent? Who are the targets and how are they being targeted? How is it possible for syndicate to extort millions of Rands without leaving a trace? And what happens behind the scenes when high profile kidnappings take place?

In this week’s episode of Boots on the Ground: behind South Africa’s national headlines, we focus on the Van Vuuren and Van Wyk judgments that paved the way for lifers to be eligible for parole after 12 years and four months of serving their life sentence. Parole for lifers has had devastating emotional impacts on the families of victims and communities.

In today’s episode of Boots on the Ground: behind South Africa’s national headlines, we critically consider the information related to last week's parliament fire which held the country’s attention for the first week of 2022. What does a raging fire at a strategic national key point mean? Is Zandile Mafe responsible? How could it be possible for anyone to slip into parliament undetected and cause this much destruction? And could it be linked to other strange happenings in SA?

Family, for most, is a concept that represents togetherness, love and — despite the occasional conflict — a bond that supersedes most. But recently convicted female serial killer and former police officer Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu saw her family more as a living pay cheque, ready to be harvested at will. Ndlovu was found guilty of the murder of five of her relatives and one of her lovers. She arranged the brutal murder of her lover, sister, cousin, niece and two nephews to cash in on life and...

KwaZulu-Natal rugby player Lindani Myeni had been on the phone with his wife Lindsay. He had told his wife he would be home “soon”, but Lindsay and their two young children would never hear from him again. Myeni was shot by officers in Honolulu’s police force while they were responding to a call about an alleged burglary in progress. He was outside and unarmed at the time of the shooting. Police shootings have been a hot issue in the US for many years. Research by renowned American news...

Grace Rohan cannot understand why at seven years old she no longer has a daddy while her mother, who is in her 40s, still has hers.The grade 2 pupil from Durban and her 18-year-old brother, Daniel, are mourning their father, José, who died of Covid-19 in February, a month after he turned 51.About 1,600km away in Langa, Cape Town, Sindiswa Lugulwana, 70, asks God to grant her a long life. She cares for three orphaned grandchildren whose single-parent mothers - twin sisters Phumla and Phumeza -...

Somewhere in Burgersfort, Limpopo, there is an 11-year-old girl whose life will never be the same. She sits quietly on a bright red wooden bench beneath a tree, gripping her father's hand. Her parents fear she is on the verge of another epileptic fit. Since her second rape, the fits have intensified. As her father speaks about the family's anxious wait for her HIV results, the girl watches leaves blow across the dusty front yard of their home. She is seated just a stone’s throw away from the...

Today marks exactly a year since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in SA. Since that day there have been 1,517,666 confirmed cases and 50,462 Covid-19-related deaths countrywide. In this episode of Boots on the Ground: Behind SA’s National Headlines, we relive some of the most memorable moments from the pandemic - moments we ought not to forget, as we continue to wage war against Covid-19.

Six bullets. That’s what it took to silence 65-year-old KwaZulu-Natal grandmother and anti-mine activist Fikile Ntshangase. Her crime? Standing firm in opposition to the expansion of a coal mine in her community. In today’s episode of Boots on the Ground: Behind SA’s National Headlines, we look into the assassination of uMama Ntshangase, an anti-mine activist from northern KwaZulu-Natal, and we consider the environment of intimidation in which she and other vocal anti-mine activists find...

When the ninth anniversary of the Marikana massacre comes, the trial of the police officers implicated in the murders of five people who were killed at the mine on August 13  2012 — three days before the massacre — will be nowhere near conclusion. This as the court case, which is being heard in the North West High Court, was postponed on Friday. Both the state and defence agreed to have the matter postponed to May 10 2021. When the case returns to court then, it will only sit for three...

SA’s cash heist season has struck early with armed gangs launching waves of deadly attacks which have already left 24 people dead and dozens injured this year. Criminologists and CIT companies say driving the surge, which began in August two months ahead of the annual November heist peak, is the easing of lockdown regulations. Despite the lockdown, SA Banking Risk Information Centre data, showed a 29% increase in cash van attacks between 2019 and 2020.