Cameras ready for Oscar Trial

They stood on ladders, cameras on their shoulders, forming what felt like a tunnel to walk through, more than an hour before Judge Thokozile Masipa was expected to continue reading her judgment.

A woman in a fluorescent jacket was trying to move a large A-frame ladder from the pavement outside the entrance, while a man with an Australian accent offered to move it if she moved another woman, with a hand-held camera standing two steps away, out of the way.

“We’ve been here since 6am,” he protested politely, holding onto the ladder, a large camera at his feet. The woman in the jacket then left.

A woman walking by clicked her tongue in irritation at having to dodge the reporters standing idly around.

“What a circus,” remarked another man. “I’ve never seen so many people here. This is bigger than Mandela,” he said, smiling.

The sound of early morning traffic, chatter and the wheels of lawyer’s black suitcases rattling over the paving filled the air.

– Sapa