Top-four spot for Weekend Post photographer at national awards

“The Swarm”, an eerie photograph of an Eastern Cape farmer walking through land dashed by hundreds of brown locusts, earned The Herald and Weekend Post photographer Werner Hills a top-four place in the feature photograph section of the Standard Bank-sponsored Sikuvile Awards in Johannesburg.

Environmental journalist Mike Loewe, of The Herald's sister paper, The Daily Dispatch in East London, received a commendation for his reportage on Shell and the government’s attempt to use air guns to blast the Wild Coast, the ensuing uproar and national protests.

There were 357 entries for 13 categories, starting with the hard news category in which Loewe’s work was judged to be one of the top three by 15 judges and convener Lizeka Mda.

Hills, meanwhile, managed to capture how locust swarms, so dense they sometimes blocked out the sun, destroyed crops in Graaff-Reinet, Cradock and Middelburg in the Eastern Cape in April 2021.

The series of photographs featured in Weekend Post.

The Herald and Weekend Post editor Rochelle de Kock congratulated Hills on a job well done.

“It was a tough competition, with many brilliant entries from photographers around the country,” she said.

“It is thus an honour for Weekend Post to receive the recognition, earning a top-four spot in the category.

“Werner did a wonderful job capturing the sheer magnitude of the locust infestation, which wreaked havoc on farms in the Eastern Cape.

“Hearty congratulations to Werner on a stunning job well done,” De Kock said.

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