Burning Man
This is not a hard hitting story of xenophobia, but the story of an individual whom, tragically, the world presently knows as the 'Burning Man'. Our intention is to create a film that reclaims Ernesto Nhamuave's identity and memory.(FAR member - Desiree Markgraaff, Producer - right)
The underlying premise of our film is that Ernesto in many ways represents the facelessness of poverty in our country. The tragedy of his story is that it took this most horrific, callous act before South Africans would sit up and take note. Ernesto's story - and the story of so many living below the poverty line - represents the human reality behind the NGO stats, the pop concerts to raise money for the poor, and the well-meaning speeches of civic officials. The fact is, pictures of human suffering still do not move a society to change. But Ernesto's life, and his untimely death, cannot be for nought.(FAR member - Adze Ugah - right)Working title: AFROPHOBIA
A film by: Sechaba Morojele
This documentary wants to understand the current “agrophobic” climate that exits in
The documentary will investigate this theory by looking at the lives of two different South African people from recently violently affected “agrophobic areas” who have been living in abject poverty since and before 1994. From these two case studies we will try to understand/explain how poverty in South Africa is deeply rooted in South Africa’s extended colonial history and how 14 years after the birth of our new democracy the situation has actually gotten worse: “The poverty traps set by apartheid remain an important explanation for the persistence (and the worsening) of poverty in South Africa [2]"
Though South Africa is a better country from a political and human rights point of view, one can however argue that a corresponding socio-economic transformation has not yet taken place. The main reason for this is the so-called “elite compromise” where the apartheid corporate sector managed to force the ANC to accept a neo-liberal and globally orientated economic policy for the “New South Africa”. This policy produced an economic system that systematically excludes the poor half of the population from mainstream economic and political activity and prevents the possibility of any comprehensive redistributive measures.
This “elite compromise” together with the inheritance of a self-perpetuating poverty trap and the failure to control the influx of many African foreigners into South Africa could be part of the answer to the growing frustrations and “explosive rage” that our country has experienced in the recent weeks.
The other part, as will also be investigated in this documentary through interviews with the relevant scholars, professors, etc, relates to the increasing levels of afrophobia in the country. Though many have argued that the high levels of poverty and the lack of service delivery are at the root of the current afrophobia attacks, afrophobia itself must have had a significant role to play in the violence. This afrophobia, one wishes to argue stems from anti-black racism that is still rife in
We cannot forget the role the media has played in igniting these current afrophobia attitude [4] and how it together with the middle class have shown a great sense of complacency towards the plight of the impoverished majority.
Though anti-black sentiments are a well known phenomenon within White South Africa, Black anti black sentiments need to be dissected to better appreciate afrophobia; how and when did Black South Africans start hating their fellow Africans and why and does this form part of a greater black colonised mind that harbours a great sense of self hate towards their own kind?
FAR was contacted today by SAfm producer Thamba Dlamini, on behalf of Eric Miyeni, and it has been arranged that FAR will be interviewed @ 19h30 tonight on the Eric M after dark show!
So listen to get the latest updates & happenings on what the passionate crew of Filmmakers Against Racism is covering across
Already the response has been amazing, donations are coming in, the public is becoming aware, positive things are being done by people with big African hearts. So catch the show, and feel a part of it.
Here was the email we received this afternoon –
I would like to propose an interview with one of the representatives from SA Filmmakers Against Racism / Xenophobia.
I am the Producer of an evening programme on SAfm, called Eric M After Dark hosted by Eric Miyeni.
Our show is about positive story we talk to people who are contributing positively to SA and other parts of this world. It would be our pleasure if someone can be available to do an interview with us today from 19:30-19:45pm just to give us and our listeners an insight about this wonderful initiative.
We are asking for this interview with a hope that it will send a strong message across to the perpetrators of this disgusting behaviour of xenophobic attacks that has put our country on the map for the wrong reasons.
I hope you will find this in order and your response in this regard will be highly appreciated
Regards
Themba Dlamini
SAfm: Producer / Eric M after
Like our earlier post received from Nonso Dike, with his visual poetic contribution, people are standing up and raising their voices. That is a good thing!
Be a part of it.
They called him Mugza", he was the faceless subject of the horrific image which will be seared into our memories and the global perception of our country alongside those of Nelson Mandela leaving prison or people queuing to vote.
Reporter Beauregard Tromp found out a few details about this man and the misfortunes that led him to become the world's most famous victim that day and wrote about it movingly. "Mugza" only had a nickname and was heading for a pauper's funeral, this report said, but at least he was being humanised.
The Sunday Times' Victor Khupiso gave us his name and spoke to a brother-in-law who said he would bury the body.
At the
Fifty metres down the road, in a cold, steel, refrigerated hole, lay Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave.
For almost a week, the public knew him only as the flaming man. In Ramaphosa township, he was known simply as Mugza.
For Jose and Severiano he was a brother, a husband and a father who sought a better life in
Ernesto was struggling to make ends meet. As a security guard in
A running joke in
On Thursday, Jose and Severiano got a call from their brother-in-law, Francisco Kanze. Stabbed, beaten and with a cement block thrown on his head, Kanze would survive the attack on him and Ernesto in Ramaphosa on May 18.
The image of Ernesto burning to death would bring the reality of the xenophobic horror home to people around the world.
Although Jose and Severiano are strictly speaking cousins of Ernesto, the three grew up metres from each other near Inhambane, the tourism area 550km north of
Jose held no hope that it was all a mistake. All he wanted now was to take his brother home. The body was sent to Germiston mortuary, hospital officials assured. Body number 1247 was pulled out. This time the entire body was burnt. The face was unrecognisable. Only part of a leg and a foot had escaped relatively unharmed.
"I knew it was Ernesto because of his toes. He has a birth defect on his middle toe," said Jose.
At the Germiston Community Hall, Mozambican official Edmundo Matenja has a ledger that is nearly full. Most of the names recorded in them are people looking for family members lost when they fled. At the back of the ledger is a list of six names, their fate known.
Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave would be number seven.
Excerpt by Beauregard Tromp
May 27 2008 The Star
Two Camps HDV – By Rehad Desai, Nicolaas Hofmeyre, Francesco Biagini, Tony Bensusan, Nami Mhlongo.
Supported by many others film activists and professional filmmakers
Editors Khalid Shamis and Lentsoe Serote, Ravi Desai
Equipment donated by Visual Impact, DV8, The Cameraman, Wits University
Production Company Uhuru Productions
This is a story about the increasing hardships facing refugees in the city of Johannesburg told through the experience of three African men; Leo, Chibombe and Patrick. Their stories will testify to the struggle for survival facing the most vulnerable and alienated in a city at the helm of the so-called African Renaissance.
Leo, originally from the 
Leo gained refugee status a year ago but remains unemployed, as he is the leader of the Congolese community in
During the 
He defined from his expert position his fears about the location of the new camp; the migrant labour hostels that surround it have been implicated in the attacks against African immigrants in the area before and present a real security threat. (FAR member Nami Mhlongo - pictured right)
They* defeat the councils attempt to move them by winning a successful court interdict led by the
Chibombi Mayenja is a Congolese refugee at the Jeppe camp. He was beaten and tortured in the DRC for allegedly leaking of information to the press about illegal mining operations. He was attached to the secret service and decided that he and young family needed to escape from the country. He now works as a motors parts inspector and was nominated by his South African co-workers as a shop steward; he is also vice chairperson of his trade union branch and has a good relationship with those he works with.
Still nursing a eye wound he received in a xenophobic attack, he speaks most convincingly about why he and his fellow Africans are being persecuted and powerfully describe the general and present plight of those refugees in the Jeppe Camp. The Jeppe Camp is highly organized and it is they who ensured the interdict route was taken and have agreed to passively resist any relocation that they have not agreed to make. (FAR member Khalid Shamis - pictured right)
Patrick Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean who is ethnically Ndbele. This has given him a language advantage and has ensured an easier integration into South African society. He was an MDC activist and was beaten and tortured by the ZANU – PF youth militia “The Green Bombers”. He arrived in
He describes being subjected to humiliating attacks by South African and what they are doing to others, how he fears to walk the streets, and tells us he is waiting to see what happens before he decides whether to leave the country or not. Patrick unwilling to face the wrath of Mugabe’s present reign of terror is planning to go to
Xoliswa story – women and their vulnerabilityShe is not sure where she will go and she is worried about the fact that her child is missing school.
2nd Story….Winnie Mandela took in a Congolese family. The woman who was taken in has a one year old child and Winnie felt that that the child would have died through to exposure (one of the characters I was going to film a woman called Lydia Chimanyange from
The film will explore the journey of these 2 women; I will also follow the 8 year old boy who witnessed his mother being beaten up by the people in Alex. The aim of the film is to explore the vulnerability of these women and the kindness of the
There is still much work to be done, and unfortunately these things also cost money, and so it is hoped that this initial synopsis of each film will draw sponsors out of the woodwork, to donate much needed cash to ensure awesome productions that will have an impact. So please read through them and donate to make a difference!
