Santu Mofokeng, a photographer whose searing images of everyday life in South Africa’s black townships documented the prospects of freedom from apartheid and the unfulfilled promise of its overthrow, died on Jan. 26 in Johannesburg. He was 63.

His death was announced by Maker, which represents the Santu Mofokeng Foundation. He had progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease that confined him to a wheelchair and left him unable to speak, according to South African news reports.

While Mr. Mofokeng (pronounced MOE-foe-keng) never considered himself an integral part of the struggle against apartheid, he was steeped in the policy’s consequences.