Africa Correspondent

The Africa Correspondent will provide specialist coverage and analysis of news topics and events by gathering and reporting accurate, impartial stories across all BBC platforms, with a strong focus on digital output and radio.

Job Requisition ID: 52071

Job Closing Date: 15 September 2026

Johannesburg, ZAF, 2092

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: E
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full time
DEPARTMENT: BBC NEWS – World News Content
LOCATION: Johannesburg bureau

Local terms and conditions apply. Any offer of employment with the BBC will be conditional upon you having the right to work in South Africa.

Application Requirements:

CV
Complete application questions as well as providing links to three examples of your work in English:

A text or broadcast report covering a breaking news story
An example of an original journalism story (in text, broadcast or digital video form)
An example of geopolitical analysis in text/digital/radio format

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

You will cover major national stories, delivering engaging angles and unique insights that offer audiences a broader perspective—whether writing a lead news story as with filing for live pages, filing a digital VT summing up the story as needed, or crafting compelling end-of-day reads featuring authentic voices.

You will regularly file to BBC Online, as well as making content for radio, contributing to podcasts and offering lives and packages for television.

You will also be expected to file digital video on a regular basis, offering bespoke content in both short form and long form, including field reports and digital video explainers. You’ll have the vision to experiment with digital video formats.

You will analyse key developments at short notice, deploy to major breaking stories across South Africa and the wider region, and produce dynamic content for multiple platforms.

Generating fresh ideas and well-crafted pieces is essential, from cultural explorations to geopolitical explainers that provide clarity.

The role requires spotting stories that resonate with both global and domestic audiences, and the passion to see through ambitious projects to deliver high impact original journalism.

You will also be ready to be deployed beyond the region, including to hostile environments.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
The BBC’s World News Content department operates globally to deliver impartial public service journalism for audiences in the UK and around the world. The Johannesburg bureau leads on coverage of South Africa and southern Africa, but plays a key role too in covering issues across the wider continent. The bureau generates coverage of all key political and economic developments, and provides coverage too of cultural and other stories. The team delivers high impact original journalism for BBC audiences across the world, on all platforms.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:

• Uphold BBC Editorial Standards: Meet the highest journalistic standards, adhere to BBC Editorial Guidelines, and seek advice from Editorial Policy when necessary.
• Deliver Specialist Coverage: Provide in-depth analysis and reporting across diverse subject areas, ensuring fast, accurate, fair, and engaging journalism to deadline.
• Generate Original Stories: Demonstrate a strong track record of creating fresh ideas and compelling stories around national and global news agendas.
• Show Cultural & Geopolitical Insight: Understand key social and policy issues shaping African culture and explain the continent’s role in global geopolitics.
• Produce Multi-Platform Content: Deliver impactful text, video, social, radio and TV content, with the ability to go live on TV and radio and contribute to podcasts.
• Engage Diverse Audiences: Actively develop strategies to reach younger and female audiences while ensuring BBC output reflects diversity and audience needs.
• Lead on Digital Innovation: Be an authority on best practices for digital and social content, stay ahead of trends, and test new initiatives to enhance engagement.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:
• Extensive Journalism Experience in South Africa: able to demonstrate recent experience covering South Africa’s culture, politics, geopolitics, and history – for global news and current affairs media.
• Strong Editorial Judgment and Writing Skills: Proven ability to write quickly, clearly, and engagingly in English, with experience sub-editing and adapting scripts for multiple platforms.
• Proven record of producing original journalism, for the public good.
• Digital and Social Media Expertise: Successful track record in digital production environments, including social media engagement, interactivity, and digital video optimization.
• Multi-Platform Reporting Capability: Skilled in delivering authoritative reports across radio, online, and social platforms, with the ability to go live on radio and TV during breaking news events.
• Audience-Centric Content Creation: Clear understanding of target audience needs and the ability to produce imaginative, compelling content in text, video, social, and audio formats.
• Ability to package for TV bulletins on major stories.
• You will be required to work throughout Africa and must also be willing to be involved in major BBC news deployments at short notice in other parts of the globe including to hostile environments.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

For any general queries, please contact: [email protected]

We are unable to accept applications via CV and only applications made online will be considered. Please click on the APPLY NOW button to proceed with your application.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC

At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Life at BBC

Here you will benefit from:
• Fair pay and flexible benefits specific to your location and contract type.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do.

You belong

We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.