Born Charl Francois Hugo in Cape Town in 1932—but known to everyone simply as Frans—the journalist edits and hand-delivers three local papers—The Messenger, Die Noordwester, and Die Oewernuus
Francois Hugo, 89, owner and editor of the Noordwester, the Messenger and the Oewernuus, stops for a coffee break while driving to deliver his newspapers outside Vosburg.
Image: Michele Spatari / AFP
Armed with a flask of coffee, some boiled eggs and a towel to shield his bare legs from the scorching sun, 90-year-old François Hugo sets off every Thursday to deliver newspapers in the South African desert.
Week in, week out, the elderly editor has made the 1,200-kilometre (750-mile) round trip across the semi-arid Karoo region in the country's south.
He has been doing it for some four decades.
Born Charl Francois Hugo in Cape Town in 1932—but known to everyone simply as Frans—he is arguably the last bastion of a dying business.
The energetic nonagenarian edits and hand-delivers three local papers—The Messenger, Die Noordwester and Die Oewernuus.