Special Assignment on SABC3 on Sunday at 9:30pm looking at intersex people and how their rights are often violated.

The SABC's weekly investigative magazine show, Special Assignment, on Sunday at 21:30 on SABC3 will be looking at intersex people and how their rights are often violated.

"Intersex" is a general term for various manifestations of reproductive or sexual anatomy that do not fit the typical definitions of female or male and it is estimated that approximately one in 500 people in South Africa are born intersex and one in 1 500 worldwide.

Sunday's episode of Special Assignment was produced by Lindile Mpanza.

"There’s a lot of intersex conditions that don’t have abnormal genitalia or minimally abnormal genitalia at birth and only present later on when different parts of your body switch on at different times,” explains paediatric endocrinologist, Professor David Segal who features in the episode.

The rights of those born intersex are frequently violated with babies killed, abandoned or operated on to avoid the perceived shame on the family.

"When you are born intersex, with both genders there is nothing wrong with you," says Dimakatso Sebidi, who doctors operated on as a baby, to "normalise" the appearance of her genitals. She wishes things had been done differently.

Nthabiseng Mokoena was also born intersex but was not subjected to genital surgery. Nthabiseng urges parents to wait for intersex children to grow up before operating on them so that they can have a say about what happens to their bodies.

"When you are born as an intersex person, the fundamental rule that the medical fraternity tells you is that you are the only one, that’s why we need to fix you," says Dimakatso.

Special Assignment on Sunday on Monday 22 January at 9pm looking at 'The Balaclava Rapists' of Alexandra and their decade long rape reign of terror.

Special Assignment on SABC3 on Monday 22 January at 21:00 will look at "The Balaclava Rapists" in a story produced by Lindile Mpanza.

For years in South Africa's Alexandra township, girls as young as 14 years old, as well as women and couples, fell prey to two serial rapists hiding in balaclavas.

These men would rob, rape, kidnap and force couples to have sex with each other at gunpoint. Late last year, the men – Josias Xaniseka Mkansi and Sinja Robin Mabitsela - were sentenced to 14 life terms and 185 years, and 32 life sentences plus 270 years respectively, bringing their almost decade long reign of rape terror to an end.

In Monday's episode of Special Assignment the spotlight is placed on this painful chapter that the community of Alexandra has finally been able to close.

However, the men leave behind a trail of destruction where some victims have never been able to recover from their ordeal. The families of the two perpetrators are left in disbelief and cannot fathom who the rapists really were. 

The episode also focuses on the phenomenon of serial rape, its modus operandi and how the South African law deals with it.

M-Net's investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche, turns 27 years old today with a special 90 minute programme.

Carte Blanche on M-Net (DStv 101), the pay-TV broadcaster's long-running weekly investigative magazine show turns 27 years old today - a veritable dinosaur in television years, but not a timid Stego, rather a roaring T-Rex.

The Combined Artistic Productions show in its entrenched 19:00 timeslot on Sunday nights will tonight run until 20:30, a half hour longer with the Sunday night movie that will start at 20:30 instead of 20:00.

Tonight the actuality show will investigate why the South African government's ambitious nuclear building programme is shrouded in secrecy.

Carte Blanche also has a shocking expose and exclusive footage of a zama-zama (illegal miners) army pillaging North West mines, as well as a story about the billionaire Sidney Frankel accused of paedophilia. His alleged victims speak out - one publicly for the first time.

Carte Blanche also looks at why the office photocopying machine has become a serious cyber security threat and what the term "revenge porn" means.

Special Assignment on SABC3 at 20:30 looks at hate crimes committed against gay people and the violence and brutality experienced by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and intersex people, in an insert produced by Lindile Mpanza.

The episode examimes the problem of hate crimes in South Africa and asks what can be done to ensure that the victims of these hate crimes get justice.