PHOTOS from KwaMashu Township During Lockdown in South Africa: Part 1

I have spent quite some time documenting the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, as well as the communities’ response to the lockdown… writes Durban photographer Kierran Allen (who is covering the Lockdown in Durban for SAPeople, with authorisation from SAPS). There are two very different takes on it: and I have witnessed both with my own two eyes!

On one hand we have people who have heeded the country’s cry for all citizens to remain indoors… and then there are those who have not. Rich or poor – we are all in this together and really need to stand together to stop the spread of this virus, which – without doubt – has the ability to wipe a large portion of South Africa’s population off the map!

Now, we all know South Africa has a massive problem when it comes to the unemployed and our poverty-stricken areas – these are the people who will be affected the most. These are the people who do not have access to proper health care or even basic amenities.

As a content creator I feel it is my duty to shoot what I see and always portray the truth through my images.

This post will be broken into two separate blogs.

In this one I am going to show you how people in the township are really listening to the country’s need for this 21-day lockdown.

Let me give you an example of “Social distancing”,and how difficult it is in an informal settlement. Think about this – one 5x5m shack with 9 adults living and sleeping literally shoulder to shoulder in there with close to nothing but a bag of maize meal and a jug of water!!!

While the upper class complain about being stuck in their 4-bedroom house with a 40mb fibre line, which might I add is “slow” at the moment, and how Woolies ran out of cupcakes for the kids and not being able to walk Snoopy down the road turned into a “Hot Topic”.

Guys it’s humbling to see people who have NOTHING, comply with the rules of the lockdown… while people in their security estates complain about not being able to walk around.

As stated above this is going to be a two-part blog and in my next post you will see how scary not adhering to the lockdown can really be!

It’s an honour to be in the position that I’m in and being able to share the truth is really the most important thing here. It’s going to get really bad before we see daylight, but don’t fight the system. Working together will get the country out of this!

Part 2 coming soon…

You can follow Kierran Allen for daily updates on his Facebook page, or here: www.kierranallen.com