Zapiro's Zuma Rape Cartoon Furor

Lady Justice Ravaged by ANC President in Controversial Cartoon

Sep 30, 2008 Dominic Timothy Ruiters

A cartoon of ANC leader Jacob Zuma by Zapiro draws a tumultuous response in the South African media. Heated debate centered on its racy content continues unabated.

A cartoon published September 07 2008 in the Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times (South African newspapers) has since evoked something of a national furor. The unprecedented reaction to award-winning cartoonist Zapiro’s controversial illustration, which depicts the president of RSA’s ruling party Jacob Zuma poised to rape Lady Justice, has evoked an unprecedented national response. The cartoon’s brazen interpretation of current political events has been met with both high praise and severe criticism from different sectors of the public sphere.

Jonathan Shapiro, a.k.a. Zapiro, has a long and colorful career of award-winning, usually controversial cartoons. His illustrious career has merited a great deal of esteem from a variety of distinguished members of the South African, as well as international, media and political arena. This was no more apparent than in 2001 when he won the CNN African Journalist of the Year award, the first for a cartoonist. His work is however not always regarded as highly by everyone, especially by those depicted in his brilliant caricatures.

Zapiro has been drawing since before the inception of democracy in South Africa, and thus before its fruits of free media and the right to freedom of speech could be enjoyed. He was therefore forcibly silenced (relatively unsuccessfully) by the Apartheid regime for cartoons as progressive as the ones he has got into trouble for more recently. Zapiro spared no person, white or black, foreign or domestic, who was in the political spotlight. This fact is particularly relevant in light of the comments made by Julius Malema and other leading members of the ruling party of South Africa.

Critical Response

The most recent and most damning critique of Zapiro has come from ANC Youth League president Julius Malema. Malema and others labeled the cartoon as blatantly ‘disrespectful’ and seem to believe that Zapiro overextended his right to freedom of speech with his work. The ANCYL president claimed that there were ‘white racist journalists’ targeting African leaders and promised to curtail their efforts. While not explicitly classing Zapiro as one such prejudiced person, Malema and many of his associates are clearly very unhappy with certain individuals in the media.

Criticisms of a more refined variety tend to challenge the extent to which Zapiro tested his freedom of expression. These criticisms have come (somewhat unsurprisingly, given the delicate social sensitivity towards violent crime such as rape in RSA) from sectors of the media and public usually considered in Zapiro’s corner. People like Kwena Mokgohloa and Paul van Uytrecht, whose comments were published in the Mail and Guardian, clearly feel that Zapiro overstepped the bounds of good taste with this cartoon. Violent crime is a severe problem in South Africa, a country that consistently out ranks less-developed states in murder and rape rates.

Essentially, the angle these critics take is that the cartoon is insensitive, and simply not funny. To which, many would respond, that the cartoon is not meant to be sensitive or funny at all. It is an extremely powerful hyperbole of current affairs, a thought-provoking piece of illustrated satire. All good satirists challenge the status quo. Whether their medium of expression is a stage, television show, or a comic strip, the measure of a satirist is generally made by the extent to which they evoke discourse centered on important topics relating to the state of a society. By inducing and popularizing political debate that probably would not otherwise have taken place, the satirist is able to uproot issues handled by an informed minority and place it in the minds of the less informed majority. By this approximation, Zapiro is a master of his craft.

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