Thembinkosi Ndlovu, a photographer, volunteering his time to help with food parcels, captured a heartwarming image of two SAPS assisting a woman with her heavy box.
Cape Town, South Africa (28 April 2020) – Thembinkosi Ndlovu has captured a moment that is warming hearts across South Africa. The candid photographer has been helping a local non-profit hand out food parcels. Having the permits, he took his camera with to assist with the handouts and take some photos for the NPO.
We spoke to Thembinkosi about the moment, a photograph that really is worth a thousand words! He explained that when they arrived at the distribution point, tensions were high. The line of people waiting for food parcels was bigger than they expected.
As the day progressed, the line of hungry people swelled and irritations started brewing.
“Things started off a little tense before the team of Precious Lives Matter arrived at the distribution point. There was already a queue of great magnitude from the break of dawn. As the day progressed people became restless as hunger grew more intense. That being said the directors knew the wise thing would be for more security services to ensure nothing gets out of hand. If I’ve learnt anything is that the two most dangerous creatures are the intelligent ones and the hungry ones.
The same applies to people.”
Precious Lives Matter called in the South African Police Services (SAPS) for some assistance, just in case. The SAPS arrives, ready to keep the crowd under control.
The team continued with their food parcel handout but as there were not enough people available, they could only help people carry their parcels to the gate.
“The South African Police services then deployed its Reserve police officers who came in armed and ready to play their duty. I was nervous as one would around a squad of armed (non-lethal) officers.
Due to the small team that Precious Lives Matter works with (To ensure minimal chances of infection), they could only help with carrying of the parcels to the gate which drew the end of the perimeter.”
One Gogo was unable to carry the weight of the food parcel. Try as she might, she just couldn’t get the box up and onto her head. One of the SAPS officers noticed her struggle and stepped forward to assist her. Thembinkosi saw him approach her and turned his ear to see what was being said.
It was at that moment he got to witness the spirit of Ubuntu. He watched at the officer comforted the woman and then helped her carry her big food parcel home. He picked up his camera and quickly captured the moment.
“The officer spotted the elderly lady attempt to pick the package to no avail, he then set his weapon in the police van, commanded one of his fellow officers to walk next to him toward the old lady and what I saw next was just golden.
The officer being white; spoke to the lady photographed in what I would pass as pretty good Xhosa ensuring that communication was clear, he asked where she stayed and she pointed towards a direction and without hesitation, the officer picked up the food parcel and walked with her along with the support officer all the way home. As they faded into the distance, there was a sudden silence in the air and one could feel the vibrations rise as everyone looked with the chests up, in that very moment everyone was saying “I am glad I’m part of this country”
The journey took 10 minutes delivering her safely to her home with food to feed her eagerly waiting, desperate and hungry family.
This was not the only moment that filled the air with sparkles of Gold but it’s the best one yet.
I could go on, but I’ll leave it at”
They say a photo is worth a thousand words, but we think this one is worth so much more! Our hearts swell, seeing just how this virus is bringing people together!
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