Fran Blandy
AFP's deputy bureau chief for East Africa, based in Nairobi, Previously correspondent in Paris, Dakar and Johannesburg.
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/ 30 April 2008

SA to lift ban on elephant culling

South Africa’s 13-year moratorium on elephant culling was set to be lifted on Thursday to combat a surge in population numbers, despite an outcry from animal rights activists. The South African government earlier this year authorised the culling of elephants from May 1 as a last resort in limiting the numbers of the African elephant.

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/ 3 January 2008

South Africa’s graveyard generation mourns

It is Saturday in Soweto and the Aids-ridden township is geared up for its foremost weekend activity: funerals. Traffic officials are dispatched en masse to the major streets where the sheer number of funeral processions would render chaos if one had to rely on traffic lights alone. ”Nowadays young people are dying like flies,” reflects 27-year-old Modise Selebogo.

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/ 31 December 2007

SA editor’s escape from apartheid, 30 years on

Disguised as an Irish priest and taking advantage of the New Year festivities, Donald Woods launched a dramatic escape 30 years ago to expose one of South Africa’s most notorious apartheid crimes. As the country prepared to ring in the new year, the white liberal editor managed to evade house arrest and cross over into the tiny kingdom of Lesotho.

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/ 29 December 2007

Zuma supporters decry new charges

Supporters of Jacob Zuma, the new leader of the African National Congress, protested on Saturday that new corruption charges against him were part of a politically inspired vendetta. Zuma’s supporters have cried foul over the timing of the charges, a little over a week since he was elected leader of the ANC.

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/ 12 December 2007

Dark days ahead for energy-strapped SA

Constant power cuts are darkening the mood among South Africans, with President Thabo Mbeki admitting that the government was at fault for ignoring growing energy needs. Africa’s largest economy is buckling under energy pressures after failing to heed pleas by state power utility Eskom to invest more in electricity generation.

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/ 2 December 2007

Thousands rock against Aids in Jo’burg

Tens of thousands of people filed into Ellis Park Stadium on Saturday for a 10-hour music extravaganza beamed to millions around the globe for World Aids Day. The concert at the 50 000-seater stadium got under way in the afternoon and lasted late into the night, with 30 local and international artists performing, ranging from Ludacris to Peter Gabriel.

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/ 19 November 2007

Land inequality in SA a ‘ticking time bomb’

For more than a decade, Molefi Selibo has been sent from pillar to post by the South African authorities in a futile quest to own a plot of land for his family. ”Land to us, it is a very key issue. There is a hunger for land in South Africa,” says Selibo as he looks out across the rolling green hills of Muldersdrift.

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/ 21 October 2007

China’s Africa push: Who stands to benefit?

China’s push into Africa is prompting growing interest over Beijing’s motives in the world’s poorest continent, with opinion divided over who stands to benefit most. Speaking at the launch this week of a China research programme run by the Johannesburg-based South African Institute of International Affairs, its chief academic said China had ”changed the game of development”.