POPCRU is the SA police union. I had mixed emotions shooting this event. On one hand it was an honour to be chosen to shoot an event of this magnitude, the sheer scale and enormity of it was mind blowing. On the other hand, it felt like I had been transformed back in to the seventies or eighties because it was basically an anti-apartheid rally, except it was held at the biggest venue in KZN and millions were spent on it. They gave out prizes to freedom fighters and brought up O.R. Tambo’s grandson to speak. I couldn’t help but imagine what an effect it would have on our country if this much attention, energy and expense had been spent on the future instead of the history. Imagine they had been celebrating the current successes and victories of the police force, for example if they managed to crack down on corruption and violent crime. Obviously they can’t because they haven’t achieved any of that. The other thing which had me thinking was that honest hard-working tax-paying citizens like myself are the ones paying for this massive extravagance, they had SA music legend Ray Phiri on stage, hologram presentations, a massive team of media professionals and a hall decked out like it was a U2 concert. Still, it was something to behold.
Thanks so much to photographers Stuart Dods, Kevin Bender and Stephen Railton who helped shoot this event, all the below images were shot by me.
