Sibusiso Bheka captures the uneasy balance between freedom and lingering trauma in the South African township of Thokoza. His night-time photographs, bathed in an orange glow, explore how history continues to shape everyday life for the generation born after apartheid.
Born-free in Thokoza
Bheka was born in 1997 in the township south of Johannesburg, placing him among South Africa’s “born-free” cohort—people who grew up after the official end of apartheid. He says the label reflects new mobility and legal reforms, but it “does not tell the whole story.”
He did not live through the violence of the early 1990s, but he notes that “the physical and systemic distance remains” in the community’s layout and daily interactions, even though Thokoza was one of the main epicentres of violence during the country’s transition to democracy.
As a photographer, Bheka works between past and present, mixing fiction with documentary observation. In his series At Night They Walk With Me, he draws on an old warning that children who play after dark “play with ghosts.” The images show spectral figures darting through dim streets, embodying both the allure and danger of nighttime play.
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His follow-up, Stop Nonsense, riffs on a local saying about walls that keep “your neighbor’s nonsense from your nonsense.” Each frame features a wall or line that divides the scene, turning a simple barrier into a visual metaphor for lingering social and political tensions.
Night photography and its legacy
The orange hue that dominates the night work originates from the high-mast streetlights installed during apartheid to illuminate black-only areas. “These lights were also used by white people to identify whether they were approaching a black area,” Bheka explains, adding that “It’s violent, because it was a way of surveilling the black communities, but it also casts very bright spots and very dark shadows. It’s quite something… I wanted to use it deliberately, because it has a very dark history, and yet it looks so poetic.”
Bheka began shooting at fourteen after joining the Of Soul and Joy Project, a mentorship program for Thokoza youth. The initiative introduced him to a camera and to South Africa’s strong documentary tradition, including the renowned Bang Bang Club, which had photographed his own neighbourhood during the 1990s upheavals.
He recalls an early assignment that asked participants to study historic images, noting that “I don’t remember seeing any made at night.” This scarcity prompted him to explore nocturnal atmospheres, which he says “It’s a nice way to use that time of day to speak of a reality that exists there, but also the fictionality of things.”
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There is a lyrical realism to Bheka’s images; like ghost stories, they are mystic and quiet. He observes that “townships are quite surreal places. They are very fast-paced, anything can happen at any time,” and he aims to record those “conflicting realities” where a shebeen can sit beside a church.
Infrastructure and memory
The layout of Thokoza reflects policies from the late 1950s, when the township was built under apartheid to house Black families displaced by racial-segregation policies. Streets were illuminated with tall lamps that emitted a distinct yellow-orange glow.
Daylight explorations and narrative tactics
In his most recent project, SEENS, Bheka turns his lens toward daytime scenes, drawing on childhood habits of listening to neighbours’ televisions and re-enacting what was seen on screen. The series is based on memories of running around the township, following the sounds of TVs, and peeking in through windows or doorsteps.
Among the portraits, a man dressed as a cowboy holds a lollipop, while a teenager wears a balaclava despite sweltering temperatures. When Bheka asked the youngster why he was wearing the mask, the boy explained that it covered a skin condition, illustrating how outward appearances can conceal unexpected personal stories.
