Patrolling the hidden side of Cape Town Harbour

Thousands of people arrive in Cape Town every day.

Most arrive through the airport.

Some arrive by risking their lives at sea.

During filming of @acapetownstory, Sam and I spent time with the SAPS Marine Unit, patrolling the harbour and container port that sits at the heart of the city.

It’s a side of policing that few visitors ever see.

As we moved through the port, officers pointed out areas where people have hidden aboard cargo vessels in desperate attempts to enter the country. Some spend days exposed to the elements. Some don’t survive the journey.

It was a sobering reminder that behind every statistic is a human being willing to take extraordinary risks in search of something better.

The scale of the port itself was remarkable.

Towering container ships.

Kilometres of dockside infrastructure.

An entire city within a city.

And all of it requiring constant patrols, day and night.

Watching the Marine Unit work was another lesson in how complex Cape Town really is.

A city known around the world for its beauty.

A city connected to the world by the sea.

A city facing challenges that most tourists never know exist.

These weren’t stories we expected to find when we boarded a plane in England.

But they’re part of Cape Town too.

And if you’re trying to understand a place honestly, you have to be willing to look beyond the postcards.

UBUNTU – A Cape Town Story.

Coming very soon.

—

About: The documentary was made through @noexcusefilms — our UK production company.

A small team. No big crew getting in the way of the conversation. No agenda we were trying to smuggle in.

Three things we promised ourselves before we boarded the plane, and held to from the first day of filming to the last:

– No sensationalism.
– No shortcuts.
– No excuses.

That’s the company. That’s how we work. And that, more than anything, is why people who don’t normally talk to cameras sat down and talked to ours.

Waitlist in bio.

#UbuntuDocumentary
#CapeTown
#SouthAfrica
#DocumentaryFilm
#capetownstory