Belgian chocolatier Kees Beyers pouring chocolate on to marble in his factory shop, after thirty years of doing business with the South African market June 2026
I have always wanted to visit a chocolate shop - but it was sad to enter the Beyers Chocolate Factory shop in Bedfordview earlier this year, knowing that it was about to close. The demise of Beyers Chocolates (shop and factories) has been chewed over for quite some time in the media with various reasons given for it’s collapse - the soaring price of cocoa, a dispute with a retailer, flaws within the production process - but the reason for our investigation was the failure of the state to pay what it promised through TERS. TERS, the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme, is a fund designed to provide payroll support to businesses in distress while they try to turn themselves around. It's a sound idea, but so badly executed that it assists in the destruction of the very companies it's meant to save. This was the case here: Kees Beyers applied for TERS for his company, but then was put on hold indefinitely until it was just too late.
Sources tell us that this is a systemic problem and that scores of companies are affected, against the tide of rising unemployment. What makes the failure even more galling is that the money exists. TERS sits within the UIF, and it's funded by the monthly contributions that employers and employees pay in — money held in trust by the state as a social safety net for working people. The custodian is failing to spend what it holds. This year a whopping R2,4 billion was allocated for TERS. Last year the state only managed to spend R295 million.
Worse, the UIF appears to have pulled up the drawbridge entirely. Even Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) says it cannot get useful data out of the fund, either on individual applications or on the system as a whole. Our own experience at Carte Blanche was no different: despite repeated requests, we were given neither an interview nor answers to our questions. Often we were simply ignored.
In a country with dangerously high unemployment and widespread poverty, this is a shameful state of affairs. The insert is broadcast on 5th of July 2026 on Carte Blanche, M-Net, DSTV.
An image of a pugnacious President Vladimir Putin on a kaftan, for sale with other tourist memorabilia at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa. We filmed the image while producing a story for Carte Blanche about how Zimbabwean e-hailing drivers and security drivers are being duped into signing up to fight for Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war, leading to a probable death by unscrupulous recruiters. Broadcast is on 1 February 2026.
Russian Premier Vladimir Putin voices his opinion at a stall on the steps of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, close to the heart of South African Government’s seat of executive power. I asked the vendor why Putin was represented at this stall, along with other African liberation heroes, and he said it was because his image was so popular with visitors to the Union Buildings.
Here’s a story I produced on emerging film makers attached to the MultiChoice Talent Factory, a unique academy with campuses in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lusaka and Lagos. The story is about four young creatives mapping the African continent through their own lens and lived experience.
DOP Thomas Pretorius films Influencer and founder of Mediawrap Productions, Lorato Orapeleng, aka Madam Choplife, preparing for a stills shoot - she is a graduate of the MultChoice Talent Factory featured in CNN’s Inside Africa May 2022 @CNNAfrica @Lorato_Orapeleng. It’s a glimpse into the fast lane of emerging filmmakers in Africa.
Following artists as they go about their daily work gives me a heightened sense of the aesthetic. I snapped these shots while doing an Inside Africa on the Norval Foundation’s Sovereign Art Prize early in 2022.
The rainbow makes the shot of artist Chris Soal running on Milnerton Beach early one summer morning
Kimathi Mafafo mixes mediums in a riot of colour, woven through large tapestries which reflect the themes of her life.
Sustainable fashion designer Shamyra Moodley prepping for an interview - one of the most inspiring women I have ever met, February 2022. Shot in location in her colourful home in Cape Town.
Dbongz reflecting on his own work in Maboneng in Johannesburg
13 March 2020 - In this case, the picture above speaks a thousand words, so instead of an essay, here is a place-holder. It’s an image of the self-taught artist Dbongz admiring a work he did on a wall in Maboneng in Johannesburg, painted to encourage people to enjoy their natural beauty. Dbongz is one of the main street artists we followed in a story for Inside Africa on South African street artists. It shows this weekend on Inside Africa on CNN International. More details next week after broadcast.
Film-maker Craig Foster and friends from Sea Change preparing to dive in the Kelp Forest near Simonstown while we were shooting for a beautiful story for CNN’s Inside Africa. I swam in the Kelp Forest too, with Craig’s help and guidance. It was a wonderful privilege. March 2019
Filming the founder and Managing Director of China International Travel Agency of South Africa, Jacky Liu, with CNN Africa Business Correspondent Eleni Giokos at Sunset Beach in Blouberg for CNN Business Traveller. The subject this time was how Africa was engaging with the Chinese travel market. It was broadcast in March 2019.
Interviewing veteran racing driver Amien Levy at Kyalami in Cape Town for CNN International's Inside Africa. Amien was one of the first people of colour in South Africa to race cars. He is much loved by his community as a pioneer for his sport. It was a pleasure to spend time with him for this programme broadcast in 2017 about car culture in Cape Town.
Filming sculptor Maxwell Sibisi at home in Mamelodi, near Pretoria. Maxwell picks up interesting rubbish and wood he finds while walking near his home, to create items out of them, either to sell or to give to others as gifts. Maxwell was selected to assist in the interior decoration of the Mamelodi West Community Centre for the Amaphiko Red Bull workshop for social entrepreneurs in 2017. He made tables and chairs for the delegates. We made a feature for CNN's Inside Africa about this flowering of this creativity in one of South Africa's most established townships. Maxwell, like the other local artists, was an inspiration. He turns trash into treasure.
Directing Xhosa women in a reconstruction scene for Troopship Tragedy in 2015
Pre shoot discussion with DOP Peter Rudden on board the Old Cable Restorer in Simonstown, which was our set for the SS Mendi reconstruction scenes in 2015
Talking to Zwai Mgijima, the narrator in Troopship Tragedy, late afternoon at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Arques-La-Batailles near Dieppe in France, 2013
Utilising the light at Arques-la-Bataille, a cemetery where men of the South African Labour Contingent were buried, their bones far from home.
Early morning at Tyne Cot, near Ypres in Belgium, the resting place for so many fallen from the Commonwealth countries, 2013
Working out how to use the loud-hailer before night falls, in advance of our reconstruction of the drowned men floating in the English Channel, to be filmed on a wine estate in Noordhoek 2015
DOP Peter Rudden and I waiting for the paperwork at the hired car depot near Heathrow with gear. The surfboard bag contained tripods and dung-smeared sticks for the shoot, luckily undetected as we passed through the airport 2013.