Chris Mazivanhanga
Finalist: The Hard News Award

Zimbabwean
"Zimbabwe Farm Occupations"
APTN
Shot: April / June 2000

Judges Quote "Without these pictures, the real impact of what was happening wouldn't have detonated for the media outside Zimbabwe... the footage remains unique. It caused a real impact and was the only piece shown on news for quite a while."

"They took my car keys... there was no way I could move back or forward... they all wanted to hit me... I managed to figure out who was the leader and I won his confidence and I followed them. As I filmed, I was so close... I was definitely, definitely scared. I only had one question - why are you doing this?"

Chris Mazivanhanga's images of veterans looting and burning Pied Piper Farm and beating the farm dogs to death were the first graphic evidence of the violence surrounding the farm invasions in Zimbabwe.

Arcturus had been tense for weeks, largely considered a no-go area for international camera crews and media. When Chris spotted veterans heading for Pied Piper Farm, he followed them. His car quickly became stuck in the middle of the angry crowd, his car keys were confiscated. Unable to escape, but able to speak the local dialect, Chris managed to get the confidence of their leader. For the next five hours, Chris and sound man Cornelius Nduna stood by his side recording the violent images that were to land on the desks of every news editor in the world.

When the veterans had gone, Chris went back and shot the terrible pictures of the dead farm dogs. He found his car keys and they drove away from the scene "at 180mph... "

Chris Mazivanhanga is thirty years old, married with a three year old son, and soon to be the father of twins. He was born and educated in Harare and trained as a cameraman with the state broadcaster ZBC. In 1993, he took part in the Zimbabwe UNESCO Film Training Project, then worked with the Africa Sun Film Production Unit, Harare. Chris has been a freelance cameraman since 1994. He shot this footage with a new Beta SP camera that he had only been working with for a few weeks.

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