Cape Town - Independent Media photojournalist Ayanda Ndamane’s win at the prestigious Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards honoured his late grandfather, Jongilanga Ndamane, a great storyteller hailing from a rural village in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape.
The 2024 edition of the awards at the weekend was organised by the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef).
On Saturday, Ndamane was announced as the winner of the News Photograph category for his entry Pro-Palestine crowd clash with police for the Cape Times during a gala dinner at The Venue Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.
He had been a finalist a total of four times over the years.
Ndamane, 41, has been a photojournalist for 16 years, with the desire to continue in his grandfather’s legacy of storytelling, albeit via a different medium – photography.
“I was raised by my grandfather. My grandfather was a storyteller of note. He never went to school but he used to tell very powerful stories.
“Because you’re in the rural areas, you don’t have newspapers, TV and radios, but he used to tell us very powerful stories about our village, about history.
“So growing up, I wanted to tell stories, but in a different way,” Ndamane said.
His grandfather passed away in December 2023 at the age of 94.
Throughout his life, Ndamane has taken on several roles and professions, such as security guard, waiter, cashier and soldier.
While not always having money to get to and from his home in the Europe informal settlement in Nyanga to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Bellville campus, where he studied photography, he would take on jobs as a “gaatjie”, or taxi sliding-door operator, to ensure that he made it to his classes.
His win was a happy and emotional one, but not for him solely, he said.
“This award is not my award but it’s for every photographer out there, it’s for every reporter who works honestly and hard.
“It’s for the kid that’s sitting in Manenberg dodging bullets, but that kid still goes to school.
“It’s for the kid that is sitting in Khayelitsha where the house is flooded and that kid must walk three kilometres to go to school.
“This award represents the kid who is poor, who thinks nothing will come out of their lives.”
Sanef executive director Reggy Moalusi said around 655 entries were received this year.
“As per the judges’ citation, his image not only captures the news event itself and reflects the incredible closeness and courage of the photographer, but also shows that even in situations that might feel life-threatening, the main function of press photographers is to present a fair and accurate representation of events, to tell the story without prejudice or preference around issues of race and religion.”