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6 Episodes 2015 - 2015
Episode 1
Under apartheid, South Africa's police were notorious for extrajudicial killings and the routine use of torture against political dissidents. Only later did it emerge that these same techniques were being used even when the victims were suspected criminals, rather than enemies of the racist state. On the birth of the Rainbow Nation two decades ago, most people believed that this would quickly become a thing of the past, that a new era of prosperity, justice and social harmony would make such abuses unthinkable. But in the past 20 years, with both prosperity and social equality remaining an unfulfilled dream for many South Africans, violent crime has been on the rise. This in turn has generated an increasingly aggressive response from the police - under intense political pressure to stop muggings, armed robberies, gang warfare and murder on the streets of the country's major cities. The problem is that some of those charged with upholding the law have been breaking it themselves. Elements of South Africa's police now stand accused of being out of control in a way that is dangerously reminiscent of apartheid's darkest days. In this episode of Africa Investigates, veteran South African journalists Stephan Hofstatter and Mzilikazi wa Afrika, from the country's Sunday Times newspaper, examine the activities of one elite police unit and allegations that its members have been responsible for the torture and murder of criminal suspects.
Episode 2
Many Ugandans have lived through fear over the decades - either because of the actions of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army or from the campaign of an Islamist insurgency known as the ADF. But today Ugandan Muslims face a different anxiety. Over the past two years, unknown assailants have ambushed and killed a dozen of the country's leading Muslim clerics. Others survived and now live in fear. The attacks have occurred across the country, from the capital, Kampala, to border towns like Mbale. The government and police say that ADF insurgents, among others, are responsible for the killings. Other's blame them on an ideological struggle within the Muslim community or a result of a fight over property and money. Many, though, are pointing fingers at Ugandan government security forces themselves, accusing them of using violence and the 'threat of terrorism' to engender reasons for suppressing political opposition. In the middle of all this is a so-called hit list with the names of Muslim clerics who have, apparently, been marked for murder. Over half of those on the list have now been killed and the rest now live under armed protection, but they remain under threat, increasing tensions between the different Muslim denominations, the public and the authorities. Prompted by this story's mysterious claims and counter claims, reporters Sorious Samura and Ivan Okuda and producer Clive Patterson teamed up to find out who is really behind the violence that is dividing a community and the nation and to ask whether state agencies are more involved than they are letting on.
Episode 3
It is understandable why a desperate childless couple might do anything to have a baby, but those who exploit their unhappiness for profit are not so easy to forgive. In this deeply disturbing episode of Africa Investigates, Ghana's undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and investigative reporter Rosemary Nwaebuni team up to identify and expose some of those those behind Nigeria's heart-breaking baby trade. It is a scam that exploits couples desperate for a baby and young pregnant single mothers - often stigmatised in a country where abortion is illegal except in the most dire medical emergency. It is also a trade that international NGOs have identified as sinister and out of control. Filming undercover, the team find bogus doctors and clinics offering spurious fertility treatments in return for large amounts of money. In their guise as a childless couple, Anas and Rosemary are falsely diagnosed by one dodgy clinician as being unable to conceive children. When the footage is reviewed by an official from Nigeria's Ministry of Health, he is appalled at the way vulnerable people are being conned. "You should not allow these people access to the public," he says. But worse is to come. The team go on to uncover orphanages and clinics that act as brokers for illegal baby sales, by which naive, greedy or simply desperate young mothers are "persuaded" to hand over their newborn children for cash.
Episode 4
Six years ago local hunters stumbled on one of the world's largest deposit of rubies in the northern province of Mozambique, a potential source of riches for a country in which much of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. The deposits are now being mined by a local company, Mwriti, in partnership with a British company, Gemfields, which owns the luxury Fabergé brand and prides itself on the ethical sourcing of precious stones - "completely traceable from mine to market". Their joint venture, 75 percent owned by Gemfields, controls a concession that covers 340 square kilometres of land and promises to be hugely profitable. But disturbing allegations have emerged that threaten to cast a dark shadow over the project. For this episode of Africa Investigates, Mozambican journalist Estacio Valoi joined forces with award-winning filmmaker Callum Macrae to find out more.
Episode 5
Of all the exports from the West to the developing world, breast cancer is one of the most unpleasant. What was once described as a curse of the rich is now on the march through Africa. Journalist Chika Oduah went to Ghana to investigate.
Episode 6
We investigate Big Tobacco's disturbing attempts to increase the sale of cigarettes in Kenya.