Yearend 2015: A picture and its story

A suspects are handcuffed after breaking into a house belonging to married police officers, in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 12, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

Siphiwe Sibeko: Some stories have more impact on me than others. This one in my neighbourhood in Johannesburg is a case in point. I got a message that my neighbours' house was being broken into and they needed help. When other neighbours and I arrived we found one man lying inside the house bleeding. He later confessed that the other robbers had fled and they might still in the area.

 There had been an increase in robberies locally. A few weeks earlier my car was broken into and all of my photographic equipment stolen in broad daylight. Police patrolling in the neighbourhood helped to apprehend a second suspect. They were both handcuffed outside the house and as we waited there for the arresting officers to arrive, I got out my camera took a few pictures of the suspects handcuffed together. The man who had sustained the gunshot wound was writhing in pain. Both men were crying and pleading with the community not to hit or attack them. People in the neighbourhood were angry because burglaries happen all the time even during broad daylight. The other suspects in this break-in have not been found to this day.

Although I was both angry and shaken as this robbery took place next to my home, I was able to keep calm as I remembered my responsibilities as a photojournalist. I remembered my duty as a photojournalist not to get carried away by anger and emotions. I have learned always to be calm and have my camera with me at all times. In a country known for violent crime - the murder rate increased around 5 percent this year from 2014, to nearly 50 every day - home safety is something of an obsession for my family and me. This incident reminded me that, beyond the statistics, crime affects us all in South Africa.