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Pa, Lake Albert, Uganda, 2010
Pa’s work involved training management on mega projects.
Arguably, his most successful endeavour was his involvement
in the construction and operation of an aluminium smelter
called Mozal, in Maputo, Mozambique. These projects all
followed a sustainable development strategy Pa formulated,
which was later acquired by the World Bank. It involved the
training of people local to the project, to construct, sustain and
operate the project, empowering the local economy with their
own skills and resources.
In 2010, Pa was called upon by Henry Kajura, the then
deputy prime minister of Uganda. Pa was to help facilitate the
negotiations between the Ugandan government and a major oil
company following the discovery of a large onshore oil reserve
in Uganda’s Lake Albert region. Pa asked me to accompany
him and to document the trip. We drove from his office in
Northern Mozambique to Uganda and back in 21 days. -
The story of Pa’s chickens, the neighbour’s dog and Oupa’s gun
Pa raised chickens in his teens. He was very proud of them. Upon
returning home one day, Pa found all his chickens had been killed.
The neighbour’s dog had gotten into the coop and mauled them. In retaliation, Pa walked into the house and opened Oupa Peet’s gun closet. Armed with a .22-calibre rifle and some bullets, he scaled the wall and found a spot on the roof. He trained his sight on the dog door and waited patiently for the dog to emerge. An eye for an eye. Apparently Pa got the hiding of his life. The gun now lives in Oom Stef’s gun closet, after Pa refused it as his inheritance. -
The story of Pa, the PKM and Corné’s lounge, Centurion, 2018
The PKM, a Russian-made machine gun, was Pa’s favourite gun. The South African military did not issue this weapon so I can only imagine how he got his hands on one. An incident involving a PKM haunted Pa throughout his life. Pa and his team were searching a village for guerrillas associated with the South West Africa People’s Organisation. Gunfire erupted. A woman started screaming and ran out of her home carrying a mortally wounded child in her arms. Pa knew it was his bullets that had killed the woman’s child. Pa later told me that he sometimes found it unbearable to hold us in his arms when we were toddlers. I wanted to photograph a PKM in a lounge or a kitchen, to somehow portray how the trauma from the South African Border War is still present in the homes of South Africans. I found one at an armoury that deactivates and rents out guns and other
weapons to the film industry. I arrived thinking I could take it with me, and have some time to photograph it. However, the gun had not been deactivated and required the additional expense of an expert. I asked the owner if I could photograph the gun under
the supervision of a staff member, perhaps someone who lived nearby. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Corné lives upstairs.’ -
The M26 hand grenade
Originally designed by the Americans, the M26 was adopted by aerospace and
defence manufacturer Denel, and put into service during the South African Border War. The fuse burns for four seconds before the grenade explodes. It is
very likely the same kind of grenade that exploded in Pa’s interrogation incident.
In order to somehow convey the secondary trauma and loss felt by the family, I asked them each to pose for a hand-held four-second exposure. -
The story of the assegai and the Voortrekker dress
Both the assegai and the Voortrekker dress have been handed down through generations. When he was nine, our great-grandfather loaded
guns for his father during attacks on the family home by the Matebele, now referred to as Northern Ndebele people. It was during one of these confrontations that the assegai was acquired. The Voortrekker
attire had been worn by our great grandmother. -
The story of Pa’s camera, the crash, and the surviving sensor
A few months after I purchased a second-hand Nikon D3, I realised
that the sensor was scratched. I knew I wanted to photograph what was left of Pa’s D3. So I had both cameras taken apart. Pa’s newer shutter and his spotless sensor were reassembled into my camera. I then proceeded to capture Pa’s D3 on its own sensor.
