Archive for October, 2007

Carjacking in Johannesburg claims Lucky Dube

South African reggae star Lucky Dube was buried on Sunday. He was killed shot dead in front of his children in a botched carjacking attempt on 18 October. The high-profile killing prompted new calls for a crackdown on violent crime in my former home of South Africa, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

Police figures show there were nearly 20,000 murders in the year to the end of March, up 2.4 percent on the year before. The number of rapes, carjackings and assaults also remained high.

Eight years ago, I was working on a magazine assignment in Alexandra Township, outside Johannesburg, when two men with pistols relieved me of my vehicle and cameras. Thankfully no shots were fired. I spent much of the next four months working on a photographic essay about carjackings in Johannesburg. A couple images from that essay follow from the archive.

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