Winners in SAPPMA/3S Media photo competition announced

The Southern African Plastic Pipe Manufacturers Association (SAPPMA) has announced the winners of its recent photography competition, launched in 2021 in association with 3S Media.

The competition was open to all photographers – regardless of skill and expertise – to interpret the theme, ‘The Value and Role of Plastic Pipes in South Africa’.

Jan Venter, CEO of SAPPMA, reports that although there were many enquiries from members of the public interested in entering the competition, Covid-19 restrictions enforced at factories prohibited them from gaining access to sites to take their photos.

“Of course, most of the plastic pipes are buried beneath the ground. This also made it difficult for budding photographers who do not readily have access to production sites to take photos of plastic pipes,” says Venter. The entries were judged on visual impact, relevance to the industry, and basic photographic standards such as composition, lighting and focus.

The winning photos:

Category: Human Interest

Winner: Sediye Machaba

Machaba is a civil engineer at Aphane Consulting Engineers, where he forms part of a team that provides sustainable development to communities. “At times, we have seen neighbourhoods literally being born from the dust as we take vacant land and add pipeline and road infrastructure to make it habitable for the less fortunate,” says Machaba. He managed to capture one such an occasion on camera recently while visiting an informal settlement in Daveyton, Pretoria, where there is no formalised water infrastructure. Machaba spotted local boys playing with plastic pipes and asked them whether they knew where the water came from. One of them enthusiastically replied, “We buy it!” This left Machaba touched by how much work still needs to be done to ensure that all residents of South Africa have access to clean drinking water. And it inspired the winning photograph, entitled ‘Like water, humans need to keep moving forward’.

HUMAN INTEREST WINNER: Sediye Machaba

ARTISTIC WINNER: Gabrielle Hobson

Category: Artistic

Winner: Gabrielle Hobson

Gabrielle Hobson won the artistic category with her photograph, entitled ‘PVC Feeds the Garden of Eden’, taken at the Karoo Café in Lynnwood Road, Pretoria. She is a keen swimmer and netball player, and also enjoys playing guitar, painting, drawing and taking photographs in her free time, when she is not busy studying or walking her dogs.

“The photography competition afforded us the opportunity to celebrate the importance of plastic pipes in South Africa. Our sincere thanks to everybody who entered and congratulations to the winning entries!” Venter concludes.