Richard Kruger, better known as RichRed, has been sourcing extraordinary stories and pictures in South Africa for over ten years.
Financial support put on the backburner Although over the years there has been some amount of sponsorship in the form of private funding, which allowed Quite a number the boys to box in a tournaof champions on the ment on the Isle of Man hosted by the Repton Boys Boxing squad Club, an amazing experience for the boys who had never During South Africa’s 2004 travelled outside the country. Olympic games bid the name Manuel supports the Academy for the academy stuck, the site mainly out of his own pocket. on which the academy stands Government grants are slim. was one of the sites proposed “Each province gets a sum of for development. As Manuel about R 32,000 (approx. € 3,200) say’s “The club was only intendper year,” says Bernard, head of ed to last until the bid was over, South African Amateur Boxing but it became such a success Association. “Seeing as a pair that it continued to run.” Now of gloves costs around R 400, with about 30 members the that’s not a lot of gloves.” club is going strong, two of the members are national under-19 champions and 14 of them are No little angels provincial champs and one —but strong Desmond Samuels, “Dumpie”, fought in the Junior Common- personalities wealth Games in Australia.
Violence and drugs on a daily basis However these boys’ backgrounds have a shared common story of violence and poverty. Samuels doesn’t know his father and his mother was killed violently in 1996. The rest of the family have been killed or are serving time for drugrelated and violent crimes. He shares a two-bedroom council house with 10 others on the Fracreton’s notorious Gilda Crescent, across which two gangs shoot it out while children in the playground run for cover. “His front door looks like Swiss cheese from the bullets,” says Manuel.
“A lot of the kids come in shy and withdrawn,” says Manuel. “But before you blink they’ve built their own character and sense of belonging that they don’t usually get; at school they are shunned because they are from the wrong side of the tracks. Just getting to practice is 80 % of the game already won; sometimes they literally have to dodge bullets to get to the pick-up points where I collect them. Sometimes they have to dodge bullets on their way home,” says Manuel. “One boy was shot down on his way to practice, caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs. They are real characters,” he says of the boys. ”Sometimes they’re not angels—and I don’t think they should be.”
name Richard Kruger occupation Director and Lighting Camera Operator year of birth 1968 residential and business locations Cape Town, South Africa
who or what influences your work? People are the driving force of my work. It is the force which blossoms in some people to make them stand out amongst others, but humble enough to share, this interests me and influences my work.
Left behind: after his parents’ violent deaths the only family members left are his grandmother and his niece.
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what are the main priorities of your work? Honesty and compassion, without these elements there is no way that you can tackle the subjects that occupy my world. quote / slogan The past makes us who we are but it is the future that can heal us, guide us and free us.