by Thinus Ferreira
On Sunday night Carte Blanche on M-Net's (DStv 101) at 19:00 will run a shocking exposé and reveal details as part of a global journalism investigation that the weekly magazine show has been part of: The so-called "Pandora Papers" into the highly-secretive offshore financial practices of high-profile people and companies from "across the globe" and the dodgy international tax haven practices they use.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIG) along with more than 600 journalists from 117 countries collaborated on this global investigation of jaw-dropping scope that took place over many months and that Carte Blanche in South Africa, produced by Combined Artistic Productions, have been a part of.
So unusual and secretive is the nature of the journalistic enterprise that M-Net in its weekly programming note about the show's upcoming line-up tonight, couldn't say what Sunday's episode will fully be about, only telling the media that Carte Blanche is joining a "global investigation", of which the nature and subject is embargoed and can only be revealed on Sunday night.
With Latashia Naidoo as the producer and Macfarlane Moleli as the presenter, Carte Blanche said about Sunday night's upcoming exposé that "more than 600 journalists from 117 countries collaborated on a global investigation of jaw-dropping scope" and that Carte Blanche "is part of what is "set to be the largest journalistic collaboration in the world to date".
It remains to be seen whether - or which - high-profile South African people like businessmen, celebrities and politicians, as well as companies and organisations, feature on the Pandora Papers lists or documents that number almost 12 million pages of financial and legal records.
The ICIG in 2016 released the so-called "Panama Papers" about how governments and high-profile people and companies used secretive offshore tax havens to stash cash and on Saturday the ICIJ announced that it plans to release "the most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet" on Sunday night.
"Are you ready for the Pandora Papers?" the ICIJ asked on Saturday in a tweet on social media, noting that "This new investigation is our most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet" that features "reporting from more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries across the globe".
It ICIJ said that the investigation is "based on a leaked dataset of more than 11.9 million files covering every corner of the globe".
The Pandora Papers reveal a shocking paper trail of corruption detailing how people and places are hiding their wealth and side-stepping taxes by making use of offshore companies.
Notably bigger than the Panama Papers that shocked the world, the Pandora Papers are named after the notorious character from Greek mythology who opened a mysterious box followed by serious complications and repercussions.
