Original version

BBC World Service Online

From Our Own Correspondent

News

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.

From Our Own Correspondent: South Africa / Zimbabwe and Libya

South Africa / Zimbabwe and Libya

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, South Africa / Zimbabwe and Libya

James Reynolds with despatches from BBC correspondents Mukul Devichand and Jeremy Bowen

Mukul Devichand meets Zimbabwe's child migrants in South Africa and Jeremy Bowen wants to know where his notebooks went!

James Reynolds introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. 

In this edition, Mukul Devichand hears the wrenching stories of the Zimbabwean children chasing the dream of an education into South Africa.

And Jeremy Bowen wants to know where his missing notebooks have gone!

"All I remember is their boots"

Every year, across the Limpopo River, thousands of children take one of the most dangerous journeys in the world. 

They're Zimbabweans, despairing of getting an education or a job at home, who set along the road towards a better life in South Africa. 

But the risks are terrifying, especially for unaccompanied children. Many are attacked and exploited along the way.  

Mukul Devichand has been meeting some of those making their way south.

The low-tech tool every reporter needs

When correspondents are despatched abroad, we're sent off with an impressive collection of electronic equipment. 

In Tripoli over the summer, James Reynolds was allotted a laptop (with a bit of black masking tape to stop it falling apart), a collection of satellite dishes, and various digital radio recorders. 

The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen has also just been to Libya. 

But his most teasured piece of kit costs only a few dollars, doesn't need a signal, has no batteries and is something that he simply cannot function without.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

From Our Own Correspondent

South Africa / Zimbabwe and Libya

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service