It's been a while...

Crime-scene officers look over the body of a dead attempted bank-robber in Germiston, South Africa. He was killed in a shoot out with police and seven of his accomplices were arrested.It's been a while since I've complained about the police's attitude and treatment of the photographic press, as it hasn't happend to me for a while, none the less, today they confiscated a photographers camera at a crime-scene and threatened another with arrest, when I rock up to the scene, before I even pick up my camera, a cop hollers at me, "Hey You, Don't even think about taking pictures!".

Now usually, I would bring up the fact that as far as I'm behind the line and not interfering with the cops, I'm legally allowed to take pics, and them stopping me is an infringment on my rights ... this approach usually ends up with me screaming at the cops that refuse to leave me alone and telling them where they can go and what they can do with themselves (BTW, this has ended up with me in the cells in two instances already), so today I tried something different.

Today, I tried the "chilled-out" approach, chatted to the guy, tried to make him see my side, and understand what his problems are, to connect with him ...

Even still the guy continued giving me grief, until he seen the media liason approach, then he changes his tune, saying its fine for us to shoot, and tries to make out he had no problem with us.

That just shows that they know we can take pics, as long as we are outside the crime-scene perimeter, but they don't care, I sincerely reckon they just give us hassles so they can feel important.

The Comrades shuffle

Zimbabwean Stephen Muzhingi crosses the line to win the 2009 Comrades Marathon in Durban, South Africa. The extremely popular 89 km road race is run every year, either from Pietermaritzburg to Durban or Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

I was covering the Comrades Marathon this weekend, which entailed flying to Durban, I missed my flight, by about two minutes, so had to wait two hours for the next one, but I got there eventually.

On race day, I had to wake up at about 02h30 to get to the start of the race, jumped on the back of a motorcycle and slowly made our way along to the finish, stopping to photograph various points of the course, after hopping on and off the bike for 0ver 6 hours, I'll admit I have stiff legs, I can only imagine how sore the legs are of the guys that actually ran the race are.

The next day you can see all the "Comrades shuffles" all over Durban.

The Madiba vote.

Everyone gets a bit tense, screaming at anyone who may or may not be in the way, and as he leaves there is the obligatory ruck, as everyone attempts to get a pic or an eyefull of the man. But as I have said before its not all that unusual for jobs that include Mandela, you just got to get used to it...

Former South African President, Nelson Mandela casts his ballot with his daughter, Zinzi at the Killarney Country Club , Houghton, Johannesburg. As is par for the course when Nelson Mandela is involved, the entire worlds media was waiting for him to vote, as well as about a billion people with cell phone cameras and even a couple of people that thought they might get a poster signed (Not much chance for that!, I tell you).

The President in waiting

ANC President, Jacob Zuma speaks to media on the eve of the elections, I could definitely feel a real difference in the way the press conference was conducted, as if he was consiously making the transition from candidate to President. I really hope he lives up to it...

Election fever

With the national elections coming up on the 22nd, South Africa braces itself for arguably the most important elections since 1994, the first multi-racial democratic elections that created the so-called “new South Africa”. The ANC fronted by Nelson Mandela won these elections and every one since, but recent developments have put a spanner in the ANC’s works. After a conference which seen the President of South Africa recalled and the party splitting to form a new party called The Congress of the People (COPE). The new President of the ANC, who most probably will become the SA President, Jacob Zuma was again charged with corruption. These charges have been controversially dropped, and many people believe it is the ANC government pulling strings in the background. Today the ANC has definitely upped their campaigning around South Africa, incorporating new technologies, the internet and mass rallies. Some people believe this is because of the perceived threat from COPE, that has also embarked on a large election campaign and the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition has also upped their game with their posters crying out to "Stop Zuma".
Overall the feeling around South Africa is optimistic about the future, it seems that many people have put the Jacob Zuma corruption saga behind them (at least for a while) and are making themselves available to vote, even voting overseas which is allowed for the first time.

On the other hand there is many people that are not interested in voting, some saying that they are confused, possibly because of all the rhetoric being thrown around in pre-election news stories and all the roadside posters promising that “TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE”, “VOTE TO WIN”, “THE MAN YOU CAN TRUST",' NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL SOUTH AFRICANS”, “VOTE FOR HOPE”. They are very vague in what they say, which leaves many unable to know the difference in what a party offers.

The ruling ANC organized what they call their biggest rally ever at the famous Ellis Park on Sunday (19th). There have been rallies held all over the country with many parties trying to make inroads into areas that are known areas of other parties, sometimes causing some violence. These rallies are filled with die hard supporters of the parties singing struggle songs and dancing. Underhanded politics and mudslinging is rife as the parties and their supporters get closer to the voting day.
The feeling of the man on the street is that no matter what happens South Africa has turned a cross road and the ANC will for the first time, have a fight on its hands, which is good for democracy.

Overall, it’s an interesting time in South Africa, where democracy is still but a teenager that is growing up as the vote is starting to revolve more about what parties can do to make life better, than about race.