Last updated May 2007
Category: News
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Peter Biles was appointed the BBC's Southern Africa correspondent in September 2005.
From his base in Johannesburg, he covers news across the region, with particular emphasis on South Africa and Zimbabwe.
However, he often travels further afield, and made two trips to Ghana in 2007 to report on the 50th anniversary of independence and the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
Peter began his broadcasting career in South Africa in the Seventies after graduating from the University of Natal in Durban where he read History.
In 1984, he joined the BBC Radio 4 current affairs programmes The World At One, PM and The World This Weekend as a reporter.
His lifelong passion for Africa took him to Kenya in 1989 where he was a correspondent for the BBC, The Guardian and The Observer.
During three dramatic years in East Africa, he witnessed the fall of the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia after 30 years of war with Eritrea, and the overthrow of Siad Barre's dictatorship in Somalia as the country was plunged into anarchy.
Peter has taken a special interest in the life of Nelson Mandela and was at ANC headquarters in Zambia on the day of Mandela's release from prison in 1990.
He was also there when Mandela arrived in Lusaka a fortnight later and was reunited with ANC comrades after 27 years.
In April 1994, Peter reported from South Africa during the country's first democratic elections as Mandela was elected president.
In 1992, Peter became the foreign affairs correspondent for BBC World Service and later a London-based reporter for BBC World television.
From 2001, he worked as a world affairs correspondent for BBC News, travelling widely in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.
He has reported from more than 60 countries for the BBC including Iraq in the aftermath of the United States-led invasion, as well as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Russia.
Peter enjoys travel, photography, tennis and African jazz.
