The Young Independents’ SADC Top 100 winner Angelo Louw has launched a creative podcast documenting conversations with Zimbabwean Uber drivers in the Mother City, in the months leading up to mass protests by asylum seekers in the city.
“Escalating xenophobia in South Africa is tarnishing its ‘Rainbow Nation’ image,” Louw said.
His podcast, called Uber Share, is a series of candid conversations which provide a snapshot into the experiences, hopes and dreams of Uber drivers in their pursuit of happiness in a foreign country.
“I came to Cape Town to work on my documentary GUTTED last year, and would get into these interesting conversations with Uber drivers, who all happened to be Zimbabwean. I decided to record these conversations for the rest of my time here,” Louw said.
“When the protests first started, I realised that a lot of these issues had been bubbling beneath the surface, and that the drivers had spoken about their anxieties and hopes in my recordings,” he added.
Uber Share takes an interesting look into the factors behind xenophobia in South Africa. It uncovers new nuances in the challenges the country faces in this regard, which is often looked at from a job scarcity and instability perspective, and not so much one around human dignity.
“I think the methodology made all the difference in this project. Because I was speaking to people without a particular agenda, stories flowed freely, and this was just one of the stories that kept coming up,” Louw explained.
“One thing that is clear is that everybody is at the mercy of business. Foreign nationals and South Africans alike are left very vulnerable by businesses looking to save a quick buck – and this has made criminals out of people in the pursuit of a dignified life,” he added.
UBER SHARE is available on podcast platform Podomatic.
