JOHN Harrison, the BBC's award-winning Southern Africa correspondent,

has been killed in a car crash.

Mr Harrison, 48, who lived in Richmond, south-west London with his

wife and two sons, was covering the first free elections in South

Africa.

Mr Harrison died from head injuries when the car in which he was

travelling left the road on a bend at an accident blackspot at 3pm local

time yesterday.

South African President F W de Klerk and ANC leader Nelson Mandela

have telephoned Mr Harrison's widow Penny to offer their condolences.

Mr Harrison joined the BBC as Westminster correspondent before

becoming special correspondent for the Nine O'Clock News. He won a Royal

Television Society award for his coverage of the Brighton bombing in

1983.

In 1987 he was appointed presenter of the programme Brass Tacks,

tackling controversial topics.

Mr Harrison, who was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, was a graduate

trainee with the Reading Evening Post.

He became New York correspondent of the Daily Express, for whom he

covered the Vietnam and Middle East wars, and was with the Daily Mail

before joining the BBC.