Ayanda Ndamane

Cape Town, South Africa

I am Ayanda Ndamane working full-time as a senior staff photographer and curator at the African News Agency (ANA).

Since the national lockdown regulations in March, I ‘ve been working remotely to cover stories relating to Covid-19. It has been very challenging because the corona-virus is a very contagious and dangerous virus. When President Ramaphosa announced Level 5 of the nationwide lockdown, I knew, as challenging as it might be, I needed to tell the stories of how the virus is affecting our people and communities. First was the stories of panic buying before the lockdown took effect, then how people cope with the lockdown and staying indoors, wearing masks and personal protective equipment as precautionary measurements followed by how to correctly wash hands and sanitise.

Then we had to cover mass testing for the coronavirus at various centres, the erection of additional field hospitals and the relocation of the homeless and foreign nationals. A major consequence of the lockdown is the fact that people, especially the poor,would be without food. Charity organisations like Give of the Givers and various NGO’s, sporting personalities and churches had to step in to fill the hunger gap.

To make matters worse, winter stepped in and I had to cover storm damages, flooding and fires in the informal settlements. When the country moved to Level 3 and schools were partly reopened we had to cover that as well. In the last few weeks we had our hands full with various service delivery protests, land invasions, protests and even a mass prison break-out in Malmesbury.

Moving from corona- stories to people protesting for service delivery is very challenging for a photographer, firstly you are scared of catching the coronavirus and now you have to face bullets, stones and police brutality to inform, and educate people about this new normal. Armed only with a camera and lens without adequate PPE – you only have a mask and hand sanitsers, makes it even more difficult. But, you want to get the message across and also help disadvantaged people as much as you can. That is my job as a photographer covering Covid-19!