A drain on our dignity

Photojournalist Masixole Feni, the first black winner of the 2017 Ernest Cole award, showcases his work in A Drain on our Dignity: An Insider's Perspective. It portrays issues such as evictions, poor infrastructure, lack of sanitation, water scarcity, and overpopulation in black communities. As Feni says, ""I live at the back of an RDP house in Mfuleni on the Cape Flats. I experience issues like poor sanitation, access to clean water and the flooding first hand"". Photographing the lack of sanitation was unpleasant, but he did not want a photographer from outside the community telling their stories while he watched on. This is an insider's account of people's lives in informal settlements. The photographs depict very graphically the inequality that exists between underprivileged communities and privileged communities. Jacana Media in conjunction with the Ernest Cole Photographic Award have published the three previous award winners' photographic collections and this is the fourth in the series. The Ernest Cole Award is curated by the Centre of African Studies (CAS) at the University of Cape Town.