Fran Blandy
AFP's deputy bureau chief for East Africa, based in Nairobi, Previously correspondent in Paris, Dakar and Johannesburg.
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/ 22 February 2005

Gauteng a safer place, says MEC

Effective policing and social crime prevention programmes are making Gauteng a safer place, but there is still a lot to be done, said Community Safety MEC Firoz Cachalia on Monday. ”Levels of crime are still too high so we cannot announce victory yet,” he said at the media briefing in Johannesburg.

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/ 25 January 2005

Anti-retrovirals for R100 a month

Anti-retrovirals could cost South Africans as little as about R100 a month and local manufacturing of generics could start as early as next month, it was announced on Tuesday. South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare group is the first drug manufacturer in the world to receive approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration to produce generic anti-retrovirals.

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/ 24 January 2005

Metro buses boil the blood

The bus is so crowded that a small schoolboy has to perch precariously on the steps above the doors that slam open and shut at every stop. Passengers of Johannesburg’s Metrobus are annoyed by the constant problems they experience. Delayed and overcrowded busses, breakdowns and busses that simply do not arrive are all causes of their frustration.