Behind the Shutter: James Oatway on photographing South Africa's Red Ants
This dramatic image shows a man carrying two small children by their arms during an eviction operation in Bree Street, Johannesburg.
The man is a major in the Red Ants, a private eviction and security firm based in South Africa's biggest city recognisable by their trademark red overalls and helmets.
"On arrival the Red Ants gave residents an opportunity to grab what they could and leave the building.
"Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, a major in the Red Ants, picked up these two shellshocked children and moved them away from the entrance. It looked as though they had just woken up," James Oatway says of the photograph he captured in June 2017.
The scene was one of the many that Oatway witnessed between January and December 2017 as he followed the Red Ants in their operations, a project that earned him a Visa d’Or Region of Occitanie/Pyrénées Méditerranée earlier this month.
Red Ant Security Relocation & Eviction Services are hired by private property owners, and often city councils, to enforce eviction orders. Its employees are notorious for using excessive force in conducting their operations and have been accused of crimes including theft, assault and murder.
Having obtained permission to join the group by the company CEO "after a few months of gentle nagging", Oatway followed the men on a number of evictions.
"I certainly didn't feel welcome. At first the men could barely tolerate me but they slowly grew used to me and they started to accept me," he said.
Hundreds of Red Ants, armed with shields and crowbars, can be deployed on a single, military-style operation, and evictions often end in violent clashes between the group and squatters.
"I felt in danger on almost every operation. The Red Ants are often on the receiving end of extreme violence.
"I usually wore a skateboard helmet to protect my head," Oatway told The Telegraph.
Despite the danger, covering long-term projects such as this is the reason Oatway left The Sunday Times, he tells The Telegraph.
"Working for the newspaper was great but I felt that most of the stories were just scratching the surface. I hardly had time to dig deeper and get to the real heart of the story," he explained.
A long term project such as the Red Ants series allowed space to witness moments such as the funeral of Kerwin Woods.
"He was shot by land occupiers who went on to stab him with knives and screwdrivers.
"Then the killing of Isaac Mofali who was bludgeoned to death with crowbars. The shock and the grief of his wife Nokulunga was unbearable to witness," Oatway recounts.
The men in red, whose wages correspond to around £7.50 a day, are themselves as poor as the evicted and at times are squatters themselves.
"One day the Red Ants were evicting people from a building in Central Johannesburg.
"A Red Ant appeared from a tiny, dank room holding a Red Ant uniform. They evicted one of their own. That was the moment that crystallised the importance of this project," Oatway said.
"I just think it's absurd that we live in a society where a force like the Red Ants have to exist.
There's a programme of violence being carried out against the poor, whose only crime is wanting to live closer to the city in the hope that they can find employment.
The irony is that the rich landowners are using the poor to do their dirty work. South African leaders need to address this problem and stop this violation of human rights. "
