Fran Blandy
AFP's deputy bureau chief for East Africa, based in Nairobi, Previously correspondent in Paris, Dakar and Johannesburg.
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/ 27 September 2005

Vilakazi apologised after alleged rape, says witness

After admitting having had sex with a 15-year-old girl he is accused of raping, soccer star Benedict Vilakazi told her uncle he was ”sorry” and he ”knew it was wrong”, the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court heard on Tuesday. The girl’s uncle said he had never discussed his niece’s age with Vilakazi until the incident had happened.

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/ 9 September 2005

Typhoid outbreak will clear up, say officials

The number of confirmed typhoid cases in Delmas, Mpumalanga, rose to 100 on Friday, but the situation is gradually being brought under control, health officials said. Up to 700 people are now suffering from diarrhoea, but proper management and precautions should see the outbreak in Delmas brought under control.

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/ 22 August 2005

Salvors of log carrier will ‘beat the sea’

The bulk carrier stranded on the coast near East London and her heavy cargo are causing concern as bad weather hampers the removal of potentially hazardous logs. The hull of the Kiperousa is already showing cracks and breaking up while salvors go about the ”slow, risky business” of removing the logs from the hull.

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/ 24 May 2005

Workers trapped in collapsed trench

Rescuers searched on Tuesday night for the bodies of four construction workers buried when an excavation trench collapsed outside a water-sports shop in Randburg earlier that day. At about 7.30pm, a man was rescued after being wedged for four hours under a boulder lying diagonally over the trench.

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/ 23 May 2005

Wanted: Cars for crime fighters

The National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa will not be compromised by a reduced car pool, said Makhosini Nkosi, the unit’s spokesperson, on Sunday. He was reacting to reports in the media that the unit owes money to the Imperial Fleet Hire vehicle rental company.