The ruling party of South Africa, the ANC (African National Congress), is up in arms with Zapiro (www.zapiro.com) and The Sunday Times over the cartoon printed in 7 September 2008 edition of the Sunday Times. The carton depicts the ANC president (Jacob Zuma) unzipping his pants, while the ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, the Secretary Generals of the ANC, SACP and COSATU Gwede Mantashe, Blade Nzimande and Zwelinzima Vavi respectively, pinning down "Lady Justice". And Gwede Mantashe urges (in the cartoon) Jacob Zuma to "Go for it, Boss." The cartoon implies that Malema, Mantashe, Nzimande and Vavi are holding the "Lady" so that Jacob Zuma can rape her.
In order to understand the significance of this cartoon and the "war" that has broken out between the ANC together with its alliance partners (SACP, COSATU) and Zapiro/Sunday Times, one must remember the trial of Jacob Zuma for allegations of rape in 2006. He was accused of raping an HIV-positive woman, who is the daughter of a fellow liberation struggle comrade. Zuma was found not guilty, but in the trial Jacob Zuma told the court that he took a shower soon after having consensual sex with the woman in order to reduce the likelihood of getting infected with the HI-virus (hence the depiction of him with a shower-head above him).
One must also take into account the fact that Jacob Zuma is being accused by the National Prosecuting Authority for corruption and might go to trial on these charges soon. However the ANC and the alliance partners are against the charges and suggest that the trial is a political trial and a set up by the state to hinder Zuma from becoming the next State President (if the ANC win the 2009 elections). In the process of vigorously fighting against the charges, the ANC leaders have constantly attacked the judiciary as being on a war-path with Zuma. Judges have been accused for being biased and the judiciary system discredited. The ANC leadership is demanding that the charges be dropped, otherwise they will mobilise the people and make the country ungovernable. In other words, they are blackmailing the state. It is with this in mind, that Zapiro must have decided to depict the "rape of the justice system" by the ANC and its partners. Whether the cartoonist crossed the line or not is as a matter of fact of secondary importance. There are some fundamental and more important issues that Zapiro is raising and which have become evident from the response of the ANC to the cartoon.
1. There is a huge threat being posed by the ANC and its partners on the state institutions that are the basis of a functional democratic system. When the leaders of the ruling party give the impression that the judiciary system in the country can not be trusted and relied upon, the message sent to the criminals out there is that, they can disobey the judiciary system.
2. The judiciary system can not mobilise masses to toy-toy and demonstrate on their behalf like the ANC/COSATU/SACP can and it is therefore unfair for the political parties to "fight using unfair methods."
3. The ANC and its alliance partners it being highly hypocritical by complaining that Zapiro and the Sunday Times are "punching below the belt" with this cartoon, while they (ANC et al) are constantly "punching below the belt" in their so-called "revolution and struggle." They have accused the judges of being "counter-revolutionary", and publicly screamed that "they would kill for Zuma" i.e. inciting violence. They have accused Judges of deciding cases in a shebeen (pub) etc. Whoever dares criticise the methods used by the ANC (in their defence of Zuma) gets attacked. Professor Barney Pityana (Vice Chancellor of UNISA) and a world-renowned scholar and academic was humiliated and castigated for questioning the integrity of some of the ANC leaders and their fitness for state office.
4. The ANC and its alliance partners doesn't seem to understand that there is a difference between fighting against the apartheid system and "fighting" in a democratic state. For a party which commands over 2/3 majority in parliament, they seem to have a huge inferiority complex.
Their fight for Zuma is in essence a fight against themselves, because the ANC is the governing party and the state institutions they are fighting against (Judiciary, Scorpions etc) are run by them. That sounds like Schizophrenia and split personality disorder.
Zapiro is indeed spot on with his cartoon in the Sunday Times (7 September 2008). He is simply holding a mirror to the ANC leadership for them to see how shameful they look. To declare war against Zapiro and his cartoon without dealing with the underlying message of the cartoon is merely dealing with the symptoms. Indeed the ANC and its alliance partners are "raping" the judiciary.
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2 comments:
Zapiro has revealed that the Glass House called Luthuli House is a very fragile one. When it is the ANC's turn to hurl stones at judges, intellectuals and other individuals, it is fun and games, when Vavi, Nzimande and Malema utter unmentionable things, Luthuli house hardly complains, a small sucker punch from Zapiro is enough to drive them crazy!
I loved the cartoon and i think it captures the essence of what many have been saying! Off course some may disagree with it, that is fine, democracies function this way isn't it?
It took a Zapiro cartoon to get the country talking PUBLICLY about what everyone who still has reason holding sway in their moral systems is talking about in PRIVATE, or the inner recesses of their minds.
The Vavis and Malemas keep using inflammatory language to incite violence in support of Zuma. When quizzed about their violent speeches, they claim that they used words like "kill" metaphorically.
Well, we all "know" that they are lying when they defend themselves in that manner.
Zapiro, however, works with metaphorical media: cartooning and artistic journalism. He need not tell us his cartoons are metaphorical, yet these ANC supporters and Zuma himself want to force the country to take Zapiro literally.
Who is trying to fool who?
Zapiro will go down in history as the most astute cartoonist that this country ever had.
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