Coming up on
Carte Blanche this Sunday 9 March 2025:
The Contraception Question
Dizziness, blurry vision, seizures and intense headaches. The true horror of sphenoid wing meningiomas appears to only be fully grasped by the people who have them growing inside their skulls, and the surgeons who try to help them.
These invasive tumours often grow undetected for years, causing huge damage to the eyes and brain. In an investigation spanning two continents, Carte Blanche meets some of the meningioma patients who have had to undergo complex brain surgery to save their lives.
Not only do they share this grisly experience, but they’ve also discovered that they were all on one of the world’s most widely available contraceptive injections - Depo-Provera - for decades.
Now, new scientific evidence is suggesting a possible link between medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) - the synthetic hormone in Depo-Provera - and the development of brain tumours.
Lawyers are preparing cases against the manufacturers of the so-called “jab” in several countries, including South Africa, after nine women with meningiomas approached them to consider action.
Responding to growing pressure on this issue, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has recently recommended updating safety warnings about MPA-containing products to include the potential risk of meningioma.
But for the women we have spoken to, this comes too little too late.
Producer: Marion Edmunds
Presenter: Erin Bates
Stuck in Myanmar
A young single mother from Gauteng was offered a work visa, accommodation and a one-year contract to work in sales in Thailand for a company that needed English-speaking employees. Unable to find work in South Africa, she jumped at the opportunity.
The recruitment process took just three days before the company deposited R10 000 into her account and she received instructions about where to pick up her plane ticket.
At the time, everything seemed above board. That is until she landed in Thailand...
She was escorted by armed men to a compound in Myanmar, notorious for being the epicentre of online scams, where she was forced to work.
Her passport was taken away and she was told she could not leave because she owed her handlers money.
She had been trafficked by an international human trafficking ring - but she wasn’t alone.
Over 7000 people from around the world all fell for the same scam. Now, they’ve been rescued but they are stuck in a military compound in Myanmar and unable to get home.
Producer: Graham Coetzer
Presenter: Claire Mawisa
Rugby, Rules and Referees
In a sport shaped by tradition, rugby refereeing is transforming. Aimee Barrett-Theron is at the centre of a new dawn for the sports, facing intense scrutiny from both pundits and supporters.
But Barrett-Theron is no stranger to this high-pressure environment and is currently the most capped female referee in test rugby.
Once a Springbok rugby player herself, she took up refereeing by joining the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series circuit.
Since then, Barrett-Theron has grown from strength to strength, refereeing some of the toughest women's and men’s games.
Now, as rugby continues to transform and the rulebook evolves, Carte Blanche sits down with the referee.
Producer: Carol Albertyn Christie
Presenter: Macfarlane Moleli
Premiere episodes of Carte Blanche air on M-Net on Sundays at 19h00 and are on Catch Up afterwards.