Xenophobia : Why I Took Photos Before Trying To Save Murdered Emmanuel Sithole - Photographer

Should he have helped instead of take pictures while a man was stabbed to death? That’s the big question, as the photographer who captured the brutal murder of a Mozambique immigrant in South Africa has reacted to the backlash over his decision to take pictures  instead of trying to save the victim.

James Oatway witnessed the stabbing and beating of  Emmanuel Sithole  by four men in Alexandra township near Johannesburg on Saturday. Many slammed the journalist of not doing enough to prevent Mr Sithole’s death.Responding to the criticism, Mr Oatway told Radio 702’s John Robbie:

‘It’s not easy to look at and I understand that some people might be offended by that.’But really people have to know what’s happening, and people have to see the brutality and the vulgarity of what’s going on.’I think that people who are angry with me for taking the pictures… should try and direct their anger at the men that are responsible for the attack and not at me.’

‘The one regret that I have was that the first clinic that we took him to weren’t equipped to treat him.We did lose some valuable time taking him out of the car there, taking him into the clinic and then the nurses told us that there’s no doctor there.

‘They put a gauze dressing on his wound and then we put him back in the car, but that whole process took about 10 minutes.’