Eish, That's Dark

No courtroom this week. Just four places in South Africa where the dead apparently never got the memo that it was time to leave.

We're covering the Uniondale Hitchhiker on the N9 in the Little Karoo, the famously haunted Lord Milner Hotel in Matjiesfontein, the heartbreaking love story behind the ghost at Kronendal in Hout Bay, and Charlotte - who has been tidying guests' rooms and ringing the bell for a room that doesn't exist at the Nottingham Road Hotel in the KZN Midlands since around 1902.

Turns out South Africa has way more going on in the paranormal department than we realised.

Eish, That's Dark is a South African true crime and paranormal podcast hosted by Jess and Liz. New episodes every Monday 🎙🎧

In December 1994, a 20-year-old diver disappeared into one of the deepest freshwater caves on Earth. His torch went dark. His body did not come up. For ten years, he lay there. In silence. In the cold. In the dark.

In 2004, an Australian airline pilot saw something at the bottom of that cave that he could not unsee. He made a promise to a stranger he had never met.

This is the story of that promise and of the morning the cave gave back what it had taken, in a way nobody expected.

Hosted by Jess and Liz. Eish, That's Dark drops new episodes every Monday.

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A burned body. A death certificate. A closed case. And a convicted murderer doing his weekly grocery shop at Woolworths in Sandton City while the state held his death certificate on file.

This is Part Two. We cover the murder of Katlego Bereng Mpholo, the year Bester spent living openly in Hyde Park, the GroundUp journalists who cracked it open, the flight through Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania, and where the trial stands right now.

Eish, That's Dark is a South African true crime podcast hosted by Jess and Liz.

Find us on Instagram and TikTok at @EishThatsDark.

Thabo Bester was serving a life sentence for murder and rape when, in May 2022, he apparently died in his cell. The body was charred. The prison signed off on it. But Thabo Bester wasn't dead, and someone on the inside knew that.

This is Part One of the Thabo Bester story, one of the most audacious prison escapes in South African history, and the case that exposed just how deep the rot could go.

Hosted by Jess and Liz. Eish, That's Dark drops new episodes every Monday. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @eishthatsdark.

There is a ship off the coast of South Africa that has been seen for four hundred years. It never docks. Its sails are full of wind that isn't blowing. And almost everyone who has seen it first has met a terrible end.

A future king of England saw it. Naval officers logged it. Warships swerved to avoid it. Ordinary people watched it from a beach on a calm Sunday afternoon. It shouldn't exist. But it keeps showing up.

The real history behind the Flying Dutchman (the cursed captain, the deal with the Devil, the sightings that science still can't fully explain) is stranger than any version Hollywood has ever told you.

Liz takes Jess through the full story. This one anchors itself to you. Good luck sailing away from it.

Content warning: Death at sea

The Castle of Good Hope has stood in the centre of Cape Town since 1679, but it has never been quiet.

A governor cursed on the gallows and found dead of terror the same day. A woman's skeleton sealed into the walls for centuries. A bell tower bricked shut after a suicide that still rings on its own. Guards who didn't just transfer... they resigned.

What was built as a beacon of hope, turned into a castle full of tragedy and mystery.

Liz takes Jess through the full history of the Castle: who built it, who suffered in it, who died in it, and who, according to centuries of documented reports, never left.

Fair warning: This one won't just give you the chills. It will follow you home, so maybe leave a light on.

Content warning: slavery, suicide, torture, death by hanging. Listener discretion advised.

Find us on @EishThatsDark on Instagram and TikTok. Stay safe and stay skeptical.

In December 1957, the South Coast of Natal was full of families on holiday. Hotels packed. Beaches busy. The Indian Ocean warm and green.

Then nine people were attacked by sharks. Six of them died.

Jess takes Liz through Black December, the most catastrophic shark event in South African history. We cover the victims, the science of how sharks actually hunt (yes, they can feel your heartbeat), why the conditions that December were so catastrophically perfect, and the government response that involved depth charges, hand grenades, and a Navy destroyer making everything dramatically worse.

We also talk about why the sharks were never really the enemy.

Content note: graphic injury descriptions. Listener discretion advised.

THE NINE:

Robert Wherley, Allan Green, Vernon James Berry, Donald Webster, Julia Painting, the unnamed man at MaKakatana River, Derryck Garth Prinsloo, Nicholas Badenhorst and Fay Jones Bester. Their names deserved to be said.

Find us @EishThatsDark on Instagram and TikTok. Stay safe and stay skeptical.