In 1999, 21-year-old Fika Motsoeneng came 9th in the 90km Comrades Marathon from Pietermaritzburg to Durban – because he’d swapped with his brother halfway.
In 2010, Togo’s national soccer team travelled 3 500 miles to play in an exhibition game against Bahrain – but the Togolese authorities knew nothing about the match.
Many children in Cote d’Ivoire grow up wanting to be the next Didier Drogba – but for four Ivorian boys and their coach, a move to Italy on the promise of footballing glory quickly changed from a dream to a nightmare.
Home-grown three-part Showmax Original documentary False Glory (from Thursday 5 June at 22:00 on M-Net 101) delves into those moments when sporting figures did the unthinkable for personal gain.
False Glory was produced by CMG, who won Best Documentary at the 2023 Broadcast Digital Awards for The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash and were nominated for a 2024 True Crime Award for Football Fraudster. CMG were also behind the recent Showmax Original Dark Side of Glory.
Ibiza Narcos (three episodes from Thursday 26 June at 22:00 on M-Net) reveals how smugglers and dealers introduced LSD, ecstasy, and cocaine to the once-sleepy island of Ibiza from the 1980s onwards, turning the Mediterranean island into a haven for partygoers and criminals alike.
Episode 1 explores how a steady hash trade grew into a multi-million dollar organised crime empire. The second episode looks at how cocaine replaced ecstasy as the island’s number one drug import after a clampdown; and the final episode explores how a cartel war led to bloodshed and transformed the island forever.
The third episode of South African aviation disaster documentary, Helderberg, was broadcast on 29 May, but viewers can now binge the box set on DStv Catch Up and DStv Stream.
On 28 November 1987, South African Airways flight SA295 – aircraft name Helderberg, travelling from Taipei to Johannesburg – burst into flames, broke up, and crashed into the ocean off the coast of Mauritius, claiming the lives of all 159 passengers and crew aboard.
Almost four decades later, Helderberg explores the mystery which still surrounds the exact cause of the crash. The epic documentary examination details how investigations began with retrieving the aircraft’s flight recorders from a greater depth than the Titanic had sunk to. International investigation, a local inquiry, a Constitutional Court challenge, a death bed confession, and myriad theories from global aviation experts have failed to yield the truth about whether the disaster was the result of tragedy or treachery.
“I think viewers will be surprised that the show doesn’t lean in to conspiracy. Yes, it features the most plausible aspects related to conspiracy, but we try to go further in examining all role players attached to the crash and investigation,” says series director Tim Apter. “There is some fascinating science, stories of pioneering investigative work, and heartbreaking stories of loss. Mostly though, I think it might surprise some viewers that there are many heroes attached to this story – and whether their theories are correct or not, they have all, in their own way, worked to uncover the truth.”
There’s plenty of additional content and debate about what really happened on board the Helderberg on the show’s companion podcast, available on DStv Catch Up, DStv Stream, and YouTube.
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