PODCAST · society
Boots on the ground
by TimesLIVE Podcasts
In this short podcast series, we follow Sunday Times top investigative journalists as they cover the real stories that make-up SA’s national headlines.Boots on the ground is a true piece of mobile journalism — all interviews, voices and sound effects have been gathered using nothing but smartphones.Boots on the ground is a production of MultimediaLIVE, a division of Arena Holdings.PLEASE NOTE: This podcast may contain explicit and sensitive content. Listener discretion is advised. #Investigation, #Police, #SocialJustice, #Crime, #ServiceDelivery
Episodes
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Did apartheid racists convert or rehabilitate after freedom?
Racist rants such as those by suspended DA MP Renaldo Gouws appear to show efforts to unite South Africa after apartheid did not yield the desired results. Do racists rehabilitate? If you browse the archives, you will find apartheid ended because it was unsustainable after years of boycotts and...
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The sombre stories of pupils at rural government schools
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…
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Cape of Cocaine EP 4 - 'go to prison, meet nice guys, become a nice guy'
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…
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Cape of Cocaine EP 3 - Cocaine Inc: Chasing Ivanov, the Bulgarian mafia's fixer
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...
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Cape of Cocaine EP 2 - The ghost ships haunting SA's shores
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...
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Cape of Cocaine EP 1 - Discovery on the shores of Saldanha Bay
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…
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Cape of Cocaine - Trailer
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...
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Truck drivers ‘flying’ to meet increased export demand blamed for road carnage
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...
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Royal Rumble - how are Zulu monarchs actually selected?
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...
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The bloodiest days in SA's democratic history
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…
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SA’S IS CRISIS | State lets scores of fighters return from Syria in secret scheme
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...
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Inside Gauteng's psychiatric healthcare crisis
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...
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Here is why kidnapping for ransom cases have exploded in SA
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...
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Why are SA’s most deadly convicted criminals up for parole?
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...
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What is really going on with the parliament fire?
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...
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Hunting Ndlovu: the story behind the capture and prosecution of Rosemary Ndlovu
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...
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Where is the international outrage for Lindani Myeni?
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...
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The children orphaned by Covid-19
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...
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Raped and then raped again: an 11-year-old's horror story
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...
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One year of Covid-19: Reflecting on SA's biggest moments
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…
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Covid-19 is no hoax, people are dying to keep you safe
South African front-line health-care staff have been tirelessly battling the Covid-19 pandemic since the country's first cases were recorded in March last year. In the latest official figures,close to 47,000 South Africans have died as a direct result of the virus, and the actual death toll is...
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Murdered over a mine: the story of Fikile Ntshangase's assassination
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...
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Marikana | Justice delayed is justice denied
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…
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A war is raging: cash-in-transit heists escalate
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...
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The killing of Kinnear: a community demands justice
In this episode of Boots on the Ground: Behind SA’s National Headlines, we look into the assassination of Lt-Col Charl Kinnear, one of SA’s most respected police officers and commander of the police's anti-gang unit. The Boots on the Ground podcast is dedicated to unravelling some of SA’s biggest...
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Survivors recount their farm attack experiences
When she hears of a farmer and their family brutally attacked, tortured or murdered, emerging Bloemfontein farmer Mimmie Jakobs has flashbacks to the moment three men burst into her home. Stabbed multiple times, beaten to a pulp, her jaw broken, face fractured and left for dead, Jakobs, who farms...
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The uncollected dead of Covid-19
A new directive from the health department that anyone who dies of natural causes outside a hospital be tested for Covid-19 before a death certificate is issued has thrown the funeral industry into confusion. The instruction, issued on Wednesday by health director-general Sandile Buthelezi, has...
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The collateral death toll of Covid-19
According to the official figures released on Sunday night, 10,408 people have died in SA as a result of the coronavirus. While more than over 10 000 deaths is already a significant number, funeral parlours have reported a spike in the funerals they are being required to cater for. They report...
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Prospective transplant patients face a Catch-22 decision due to Covid-19
It’s month four of SA’s national lockdown, and while most of us have begun to settle into the new normal, the danger Covid-19 presents for our country has not yet dissipated. SA is now one of only five countries to have recorded over a half million confirmed Covid-19 cases. While these are…
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Trouble brews over the latest alcohol sales ban
President Cyril Ramaphosa banned the sale and distribution of alcohol for the second time on July 12, citing “clear evidence”, that the use of alcohol places undue pressure on medical facilities. However, the president's evidence is still hotly contested in the Ministerial Advisory Committee.…
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The fight to prepare: Will SA's hospitals be ready for the worst of Covid-19?
It's week 14 of South Africa’s national lockdown, and it is crystal clear that preparations of the most morbid sort are underway. From the development of field hospitals to the creations of added burial capacity, there is a mad dash underway in SA's health sector. The questions the country face…
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Lockdown day 100 | Complacency kills
Saturday the 4th of July, marks SA’s 100th day in lockdown. The country has progressed from a very daunting lockdown level 5 to what people are now calling lockdown level 3 lite. With the easing of lockdown restrictions many South Africans seem to have lost their fear of Covid-19, with some…
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Witnesses relive the day Collins Khosa died
In this episode of Boots on the ground: behind SA’s national lockdown, we speak to the witnesses and victims who were present when Collins Khosa died. 40-year-old Collins Khosa died on April 10 after he was allegedly assaulted by soldiers.His life partner, Nomsa Montsa, alleged in an affidavit…
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Is cigarette ban turning citizens into criminals?
In this episode of Boots on the ground: behind SA's national lockdown, we chat to restaurateurs turned cigarette smugglers. In light of the North Gauteng High Court ruling that the lockdown regulations are "unconstitutional and invalid", we ask if certain lockdown regulations are criminalising…
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Level 3: What decision will you make for your child?
With lockdown level 3 looming, SA parents need to make some hard decisions around how best to begin exposing their children to Covid-19. In this episode of Boots on the ground, we consider some of the difficult choices parents have had to face since lockdown began and what decisions still need to...
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If not science, then what is lockdown based on?
In this episode of 'Boots on the ground': behind SA's national lockdown we look at the toll lockdown is having on the South African economy and consider Prof Glenda Gray's accusation that government’s risk-adjusted Covid-19 strategy is “unscientific”. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE
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Level 4: Not as free as we had hoped
SA has been in lockdown for over 50 days and one thing is clear: people want their basic freedoms back. So while the announcement of lockdown level 4 was initially met by cheers, it has also unintentionally made the national lockdown a lot harder to govern. Fluctuating laws and regulations have...
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Survivor's guilt
In this short podcast series, we follow Sunday Times reporter Alex Patrick and senior reporter Graeme Hosken, as they track, record and reflect on the real events and people that make up SA’s biggest Covid-19 news stories. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE
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Holding on to our humanity
In today’s episode of 'Boots on the ground: behind SA’s lockdown', we place under the microscope the plight of our neighbours both locally and across our borders, and consider what happens to our humanity when we ignore the suffering of those around us. Sunday Times · TimesLIVE
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The fight for survival
It’s the end of week 3 of SA’s national lockdown and Friday would have marked our first day out of lockdown, had President Cyril Ramaphosa not announced a two-week extension. In a way it is the end of the beginning, but by no means the beginning of the end. The truth is, as South Africans…
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Inside SA's essential services
On today's episode of Boots on the Ground: behind SA’s national lockdown: Graeme goes on a ride-along with SA's late night lockdown enforcers, Alex has a Covid scare and SA’s lockdown gets extended by another 2 weeks! This immersive podcast follows Sunday Times reporter Alex Patrick and senior...
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The fight for control
For South Africans in densely populated urban areas, it is next to impossible to socially isolate and this strain was felt as SA entered its first official week of lockdown. This immersive podcast follows Sunday Times reporter Alex Patrick and senior reporter Graeme Hosken, as they document the...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
In this short podcast series, we follow Sunday Times top investigative journalists as they cover the real stories that make-up SA’s national headlines.Boots on the ground is a true piece of mobile journalism — all interviews, voices and sound effects have been gathered using nothing but smartphones.Boots on the ground is a production of MultimediaLIVE, a division of Arena Holdings.PLEASE NOTE: This podcast may contain explicit and sensitive content. Listener discretion is advised. #Investigation, #Police, #SocialJustice, #Crime, #ServiceDelivery
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TimesLIVE Podcasts
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Boots on the ground have?
Boots on the ground currently has 42 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Boots on the ground about?
In this short podcast series, we follow Sunday Times top investigative journalists as they cover the real stories that make-up SA’s national headlines.Boots on the ground is a true piece of mobile journalism — all interviews, voices and sound effects have been gathered using nothing but...
How often does Boots on the ground release new episodes?
Boots on the ground has 42 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Boots on the ground on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Boots on the ground?
Boots on the ground is created and hosted by TimesLIVE Podcasts.
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