Coming up on
Carte Blanche on Sunday 14 September 2025:
Under the Counter
They come in their hundreds, day in and day out: smugglers, hauling illegal cigarettes across the border.
On the ground, a warzone as landowners face a choice: pack up and go, turn a blind eye, or take a cut.
A multibillion-rand criminal economy is bleeding the nation’s coffers dry. South Africa’s illicit cigarette trade outperforms the legal market, robbing the state of billions every year in lost taxes.
Corruption and porous borders keep the trade thriving, despite government promises to crack down.
From the border to spaza shop counters, we trace the illicit cigarette trade and lift the lid on the hidden supply chain that keeps it alive.
Producer: Nicky Troll
Presenter: Macfarlane Moleli
Hout Bay Harbour Revisited
It’s one of the most-visited tourist spots in Cape Town, beloved of those seeking traditional fish and chips in the setting of an authentic fishing town.
Businesses are family-run, many with stories stretching decades into the town’s past. But Hout Bay is struggling.
The harbour is clogged with wrecked boats; vandals eat away at neglected buildings.
Worst of all, tenants, denied the stability of long-term leases, are forced to work year to year, unable to plan for the future.
Meanwhile, government touts a major development plan that it says could bring in billions. But can family businesses hold out for the promised development?
We pin down the Minister of Public Works and ask: what place will small businesses have in the Hout Bay of the future?
Producer: Liz Fish
Presenter: Govan Whittles
Sky Hustlers
It’s an unlikely battlefield for power, prestige and profit: not Parliament, not a protest, but a pigeon coop.
Pigeon racing isn’t a quirky side hustle - it’s a multimillion-rand obsession. And traditionally, it’s the playground of the elite.
But from backyards and car boots, a new generation of champions is rising as township kids breed winning birds - with none of the pedigree.
They’re raising syndicates on sponsorships, upending a bloodline sport and getting ready to take on an old guard that never saw them coming.
It’s a story about how legacy is built - or stolen. The story of a turf war, in the sky.
Producer: Latashia Naidoo
Presenter: Govan Whittles
Premiere episodes of Carte Blanche air on M-Net on Sundays at 19h00 and are on Catch Up afterwards.