Kumalo was born in
Utrecht near Newcastle in the province of
KwaZulu-Natal. He first worked in a garage doing various jobs and then started freelancing for various publications, selling his photographs where he could. He did a lot of work for the
Bantu World. In 1956, he found a permanent position at the
Golden City Post and later received assignments from
The Star, a South African daily,
Drum magazine, and international publications like
The New York Times. He was among the photographers who captured the
Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960. Kumalo had been encouraged to enter by David Hazelhurst, the editor of
Drum. Kumalo had used his African names
Mangaliso Dukuza because he wanted the judging to be impartial and not influenced by his reputation. A picture of him and his award was published by the
Star on its front page. "A lot of black people talked about it for days afterwards, because in those days they would only get on to the front pages of white newspapers if they were thieves." Hazelhurst splashed the picture across two pages of
Drum. Over the years Kumalo photographed and documented many of the historic moments in recent South African history. These include the
Treason Trial, the
Rivonia Trial, the emergence of
Black Consciousness, the
Student Uprising of 1976 and the
Codesa talks. This was despite numerous periods of detention, arrests and official
harassment. His work has appeared in international newspapers like
The Observer, The New York Times, New York Post, and the
Sunday Independent. Locally, he also worked for
Drum magazine and the long-defunct
Rand Daily Mail. To assist the upcoming generation of South African photographers, Kumalo opened a photographic school in
Diepkloof Soweto in 2002. He died on 21 October 2012. ==Books==