CREATING A SOCIETY OF EQUALS
Hunger for Social Justice – Three years of Maverick Citizen in pictures
There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Over the past three years Maverick Citizen photo editor Joyrene Kramer has selected, photoshopped, captioned, cropped and commissioned over a thousand images to accompany the thousands of words written by contributors. Some of the images need no words - they tells stories of the triumph of the human spirit, social (in)justice, joy, fear, sadness and perseverance. We can only hope that the images we publish over the next three years will become more joyful, triumphant, happy and dignified.
Sizani Ngubane, who founded the Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), was struck down by Covid-19 a few days before Christmas in 2020, a tragedy that sent a ripple of shock and sadness through rural and international civil society networks. At the time of her death, she had been spearheading the fight against the Ingonyama Trust’s unconstitutional leasing out of land and charging of rental amounts to the rural people of KwaZulu-Natal under the false pretext that the land belonged to the king. (Photo: Thobile Mathonsi)
Destruction caused by floods in eNkanini and Cato Manor just outside Durban in 2022. The death toll and tally of destroyed homes continue to rise as KwaZulu-Natal starts to rebuild what was decimated by devastating floods. (Photo: Mandla Langa)
Residents flee from police following sporadic looting at Letshoho mall in Katlehong, Gauteng. The riots in July 2021, which left more than 300 people dead. Some claimed the riots were in response to the jailing of former South African President Jacob Zuma. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)
A three year old girl receives her daily meal of hot oats at a Cape Town feeding scheme in 2021. In a recent study of almost 2,500 women from the Western Cape, as many as 40% of the respondents reported going to bed hungry at least once a week, while 22% reported that their children went to bed hungry during the Covid-19 lockdown. (Photo: Daniel Steyn)
A flower grows in the dried mud of the Kouga Dam, Eastern Cape. While there are widely held expectations that the devastating drought in Nelson Mandela Bay will break this year, Garth Sampson from the South African Weather Service said that this is not a given. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)
Mourners at the mass symbolic funeral of teenagers who lost their lives in a tragedy at the Enyobeni tavern in Scenery Park outside East London on 6 July 2022. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla / Daily Maverick)
A group of young people from Scenery Park in East London with their candles outside Enyobeni Tavern in the Eastern Cape on 28 June 2022. 26 Young people died in a tragedy at the Enyobeni Tavern on 26 June 2022. (Photo: Hoseya Jubase)
A man sits with his remaining belongings following a heavy rainfall in Willow Farm, Mamelodi, Tshwane on 5 February 2022. The flash floods caused many people to be displaced. (Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed)
A water crisis has been plaguing the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and taps are on the brink of running dry. Residents of Ramaphosa Park are filling up their water bottles in this image from May 2022. (Picture Deon Ferreira).
Healthcare workers in a temporary Covid-19 ward at the NASREC quarantine site on 3 July in 2020 in Johannesburg, (Photo: Gallo Images / Papi Morake)
City of Tshwane Health workers screen and test people for Covid-19 at a mobile clinic in Hatfield on December 17, 2020 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius)
A protest at Gqeberha, at Hobie Beach, Shark Rock Pier, in December 2021. The protest was against Shell’s Seismic Blasting on the South African coast. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)
Curtley Adam, 10, was friends with murdered Jerobejin van Wyk. Jerobejin was murdered by Daniel Smit, 56, in Klawer. Smit faces charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, defeating the administration of justice, and failure to report an accident to the police.
(Photo: Joyrene Kramer)
We said “so long” to Archbishop Desmond Tutu on 26 December 2021. (Photo: Esa Alexander / Gallo Images)
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA’s) Ali Gule shares a moment with Babita Deokaran’s daughter Thia in Johannesburg on 23 August 2022. Deokaran was a corruption whistle-blower in the Gauteng Department of Health. She was murdered in cold blood outside her south Johannesburg home in August 2021. (Photo: Shiraaz Mohamed)
Dr Imtiaz Sooliman at the Gift of the Givers COVID Oxygen ward, newly opened at the Lentegeur Hospital in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town in July. When the chips are down, Sooliman and his foot soldiers always step up. (Photo by David Harrison)
A tearful Emilie Luvadiokueno from Kinshasa, Republic of Congo, (DRC) sits in the remains of her store at the Yeoville market in Johannesburg in June 2022. The predominently Congolese shops were destroyed by an alleged arson attack. (Photo: Chris Collingridge)
Local community member Joyce Nyembe selects her vegetables with the assistance of volunteer Nomfundo Kwini. The Peoples Pantry located at Victoria Yards, Lorentzville facilitated a community swap shop where locals can trade in recyclable materials for groceries. (Photo: Chris Collingridge)
Mirra Nkurla sells masks outside the Ndofaya Mall, Meadowlands, Soweto. Despite limiting the number of shoppers in these closed environments it was believed that confined public areas were contributing to the spread of Covid-19. Meadowlands was one of the emerging hot spots for the Corona virus pandemic in Soweto. (Photo: Chris Collingridge/Gallo Images)
A clinical associate, Oupa Mofokeng, initially volunteering and now contracted by the Department of Health assists a patient with a mobile oxygen unit to the bathroom. More clinical staff are needed. While the Nasrec field hospital has more beds for Covid-19 patients still requiring supplemental oxygen and clinical care but no longer needing to take up a bed in one of Johannesburg public sector tertiary hospitals, sufficient clinical staffing remains the limiting factor. (Photo: Chris Collingridge)
Miriam Mogatla runs the Phahamang Basadi food garden located in Phuthanang, Freestate Province. Photo: Chris Collingridge
The vaccination site at Milpark hospital in Johannesburg stands empty, almost abandoned, on 2 December 2021. (Photo: Mark Heywood)
Fight With Insight reclaiming the streets and parks of Hillbrow for sports and fun. (Photo: Mark Heywood)
Food time at Londani Lushaka in Alexandra. (Photo: Mark Heywood)
Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Coronationville, Johannesburg, South Africa, where one of the doctors, Dr. Tim de Maayer a Paediatric gastroenterologist was suspended after writing an open letter exposing the poor state of Gauteng hospitals.
(Photo: Supplied)
Western Cape Grade R teachers say they are employed on short-term contracts, rather than permanently. They do not receive a pension or medical insurance. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)
Community volunteers carry bags of waste to a collection point, helping to clean up litter in the Level 2 settlement in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Wednesday 01 June 2022. (Photo: David Harrison)
Gift of the Givers staff help offload water donations from generous Capetonians at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. (Photo: Brenton Geach)
About 100 fishers and activists protest near Cape Town Harbour entrance in Paarden Island on August 15, 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa. Small scale fishers and civil society are demanding sustainable energy solutions and a halt to offshore oil and gas exploration. (Photo by Gallo Images/Brenton Geach)
An Operation Dudula protest on 23 July 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
A girl sits on the disused Prasa train tracks in Philippi station on the Central Line in Cape Town. (Photo: Brenton Geach)
Protestors during the Liesbeek Action Campaign against the River Club Development on November 12, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. It is reported that indigenous and heritage protection and conservation groups with concerned residents have slammed the development citing that it is a destruction of a sacred heritage site that deeply violates climate change policy, including the Paris Agreement. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
Police at the home where 4 people were murdered on March 14, 2022 in Khayelitsha, South Africa. According to a media release, South African Police Services (SAPS) have initiated a 72-hour activation plan in search of yet-to-be-identified gunmen who killed five people in Monwabisi Park informal settlement in Endlovini Khayelitsha on Monday morning. Crime experts are still scouring the scene where the murders occurred. (Photo: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach)
Flooded homes in Dunoon on July 13, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. It is reported that a informal settlement built next to the Diep Rivier in Du Noon were flooded after the river burst its bank due to heavy rainfall. (Photo by Gallo Images/Brenton Geach)
Millions face hunger after the Department of Social Development and Sassa defaulted on the Social Relief of Distress grant. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
Two men were gunned down in Steenberg around the corner from Steenberg primary school just before 8am as children were walking to school. (Photo: Brenton Geach)
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