Waxa captures winning photos
FORMER African News Agency and Independent Media photographer Cindy Waxa said her award-winning entry at the Vodacom Journalist of the Year competition was for someone to be held accountable.
Waxa’s feature published in the Cape Times detailed the ordeal of Lizeka Ncede, a Philippi mother whose health markedly deteriorated after her son, Bongile Ncede, was shot outside his home by unknown assailants in the Mesiya informal settlement last year.
Bongile, 23, was paralysed from the waist down and relied on his mother who was forced to stop working and take care of him.
In her feature, Waxa also captures how neighbours came to the family’s rescue, offering to do their chores almost daily. Waxa was awarded the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award in the Photography category in the Western Cape on Thursday.
“I wanted someone to be held accountable and that is our job as photographers and journalists because the Ncede family were continuously fed empty promises instead of being assisted. How can someone live in such conditions whereby rats even feed on him?
“When I heard about this story, I didn’t jump to do it because it might be an award-winning story but I used the only tool I knew to make a difference which was my lens.
“Today the family’s dignity is restored and their life is improving. I follow up on every story that I do because for me this is more than a job,” Waxa said.
In announcing Waxa as the winner, the judges said: “We have witnessed the tragedy of Life Esidimeni, KwaZulu-Natal’s oncology crisis, and many more over the recent past. Our winner’s heart-wrenching photo essay shows an ailing mother’s daily struggle to care for her grown paralysed son.”
ANA regional content manager Courtney Africa said: “We are immensely proud of Cindy’s achievement. Very few have an eye for beautiful imagery like Cindy, this award is a testament to this.”