Foreigners in Alex

A suspected foreigner is attacked by a group of Alexandra residents after violence flared up overnight with residents attacking foreigners, because they believe that they are taking their jobs and are all criminals.



What really surprised me about this whole thing, was the attitude by the majority of the people that I spoke to, some of them seemed slightly educated and some of them not, but they all thought that treating these people like this was fine.

Look at this guy on the left, he epitomizes the attitude I seen, he actually believes that what he did was right and is proud of what he has done....



I was just a few hundred meters away, when I noticed a man running away from a crowd, I ran up to where they caught him and my picture taking was the only reason they stopped, they even posed with the beaten man and asked me to take a pic (of course, I refused). Then they dragged him up and they all seemed jubilant, I asked them what he did, as I took some more pics, they simply replied that he was a foreigner.I guess that made it alright for them...

This happened near to the Alex clinic and I sincerely believe the only reason they frogmarched him there and left him alone was because of my presence... I'm pretty sure I know what would have happened if I wasn't there.

Joshua the smiling chimp

Pictures that I took on the 12th October 2006 of Joshua, a baby chimpanzee being presented to the media for the first time at the Johannesburg Zoo.
A young chimpanzee that I photographed a while ago was killed after getting involved in a fight with older chimps at the Johannesburg Zoo. He made the headlines again after Netcare 911 ambulanced him to a hospital. His birth was well covered by the media and so was his death.

The Confederations Cup...Class football

South African star striker, Ntando Nzuza gets away from Portugals Tyrique Swartland in the Confederations Cup-Final, that South Africa eventually won 3-0.Today, I went to shoot a school soccer tournament that was themed after the Confederations Cup that will be hosted here in June, each team representing one of the countries that will participate. The entire school was involved and it was hilarious when the younger players were playing, as every player on the field (sometimes, including the goalie), chased the ball, so you have this ball with a large group of kids following it all over the field.
These Grade ones could really do with a bit of spacing out...

Some protests are more boring than others.

Although it does look like he's yawning, a SACP member makes red-indian calls, as his friend jumps up and down during a protest march by the SACP and COSATU to ESKOM offices in Braamfontein to show their opposition to a 53 % increase in electricity charges.

A few years back when I was still new to the whole press-photography thing, I had a chat to a colleague during a protest about how much I loved these protest marches, he said that he was bored with them and that they're all the same, I was shocked, HOW could he say that, each one I had been to had excited me and I ran around taking pictures of pretty much everything I seen.

Today, I was at this SACP march and finally understood what he was saying, every protest is essentially the same, no matter the issue at hand, they march, they jump up and down , they sing the same songs from past struggles, they read out a memorandum to whoever then they leave...
So, I think its taken a while for me to get over the whole protest thing, but I'm still amped to go to them, because sooner or later someone is going to lob a rock at the cops or smash a window and all hell will break loose and the boredom will all go away fast, very fast indeed.

Hani pulled three ways

Lindiwe Hani touches her father's grave during the 15 year commemoration of the assassination of Chris Hani in Boksburg. Rather than follow the program and talk about the man who was assassinated 15 years ago. The ANC's Tokyo Sexwale, SACP's Blade Nzimande and Cosatu's Zwelenzima Vavi each took the spirit of the man and bent it in their own way to further their own political agenda during their speeches. I wonder how the family felt listening to these three take digs at each other, even though they blindly call themselves "allies". I know that I was unimpressed by their rhetoric, in fact I feel they simply displayed the cracks in this so called "alliance" as well as a blatant disrespect towards the Hani's and Martin Thembisile Hani himself.Tokyo Sexwale gestures AMANDLA! during the Commemoration of Chris Hani's assassination at the South Park cemetery in Boksburg.