Renowned Nelson Mandela Bay photojournalist Elijah Jokazi has died after a long illness.
Former Evening Post and Weekend Post deputy editor Mandla Tyala said on Wednesday that Jokazi, 69, started his career as a freelance photographer at The Herald in the early 1980s.
“Jokazi was obsessed with continuous self-improvement and developed his skill to a point where his portfolio of visuals contributed to The Herald winning the then-Stellenbosch Farmers Winery National Award for Enterprising Journalism.
“His winning portfolio was an investigative series highlighting the treacherous life of a child gambler from a Kwazakhele family torn apart by drug addiction, who ended up being incarcerated for knifing a man to death during a gambling episode.”
Tyala said amid the nationwide uprisings of the mid-80s, during which the apartheid government declared a state of emergency, Jokazi excelled with images that captured the horror of the political violence in the townships.
The state of emergency included draconian limitations on media coverage of anti-apartheid protests but Jokazi managed to continue his incisive photographic coverage.
“He produced such high-quality images that captured the dreadful conditions under which ordinary citizens were living in those days that he was contracted by an international news agency and his work started appearing in overseas publications.
“He was undaunted by frequent threats of detention by the apartheid security police, who were troubled by his coverage of the riots.
“He went on to submit his work to The Herald’s sister publication, the Evening Post.”
One of Jokazi’s photographs in the Evening Post which recalled the tumultuous times, shows Bay businessman Khusta Jack, at that point a spokesperson for the Port Elizabeth Boycott Committee, addressing a rally attended by more than 50,000 people at the Dan Qeqe Stadium in Zwide.
Tyala said the Evening Post was at that stage running a social page feature that covered the goings-on in the city’s glamour and party circuit.
“Elijah literally turned that page into a major attraction. He had an ear to the ground and was just about the first to know what was coming up in the social circles.
“He would emerge from our photographic darkroom on a Monday morning with the most glitzy images from the weekend.
“At the time we knew we were guaranteed a good sale every Monday afternoon because many readers would make it a point to grab a copy of the Evening Post, mainly for the social page.”
At the time of his death, Jokazi was in business as an entrepreneur.
He leaves behind his partner of 35 years, Nomnthu Gunguluza-Jokazi, two children and two grandchildren.
His funeral is scheduled for 9.30am on Saturday at the Nangoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton.
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