More than half a million disabled children of school-going age in South Africa cannot access any form of education, according to Human Rights Watch. This week on Special Assignment premieres Health-e News Service’s Legacy of Exclusion which investigates access to education for disabled children in…
Musina in Limpopo Province which borders on Zimbabwe is the scene of a kidnapping syndicate that robs, rapes and goes as far as to murder their victims. A Special Assignment investigation found that the victims are Zimbabweans hitch-hiking from the border into Gauteng Province. A…
“He asked why I am wearing guys’ clothes and I kept quiet… He became aggressive saying why don’t I want to answer him, he’s going to show me today that I’m a girl...” Lungile Dladla, a lesbian from Daveyton, recounts her rape ordeal at the…
Mothers of drug-addicted children often have to suffer the pain of seeing their children deteriorate and feeling helpless after having trying everything, to get them help. Often, these mothers also have to deal with angry communities as a result of their children’s actions. But, in…
“My brother was lying on the floor. The blood was running out of him, spreading…” This is how 13-year old “Tapiwa” recounts the murder of his older brother by two youths from Alexandra Township, north of Johannesburg. The teenager still lives in fear and is…
IRIN News Production Humanitarian news and analysis agency IRIN News, says thirteen years after Sierra Leone’s long civil war came to an end, its broken institutions and weak development indicators continue to impact on the lives of its people. And more than any group in…
In November 2009, 50-year old Liz Warren, a popular chef in the seaside town of Hermanus, was arrested in Senegal for drug smuggling. In June 2013, Gauteng businessman Gerhard Hattingh was imprisoned in Thailand for drug smuggling. Desperate or greedy, naïve or deceived, there are…
Written and Produced by Richelle Seton-Rogers, Skeletons of Cuito Cuanavale tells the story of the biggest battle since World War II to have been fought on African soil. Today, almost 30 years after the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola, mechanical skeletons litter the…
In honour of Nelson Mandela Day, Special Assignment visits the impoverished community of Alexandra where Mandela stayed when he first came to Johannesburg in 1941. At just over one square mile, with a population of close to half a million people, it is one of…
Almost three decades after the biggest battle since World War II was fought on the African continent, mechanical skeletons litter the landscape of southern Angola and many deadly dangers in the form of landmines remain hidden in the soil, taking their toll on innocent civilians.…