You know Christmas is coming in Cape Town when cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro aka Zapiro launches his annual collection of hit-them-where-it-hurts-most cartoons. ‘Them’ being South Africa’s politicians, who continue to supply Zapiro with a never ending source of outrageous material. A New York academic told me recently that no American cartoonist would ever dare to pen a cartoon in which the president was unbuckling his pants to rape a supine Justice, but Zapiro did just that in September 2008. And shrugged off the multi million rand defamation suit Jacob Zuma brought against him.
Zapiro’s controversial Mail & Guardian cartoon
This year’s collected cartoon book, published by Jacana Media, is called Do You Know Who I Am? And if you don’t know who is saying that, you’d better buy the book.
Over the last decade, the cartoon characters have also evolved into puppets, stars of a satirical news programme featuring such well known characters as Julius Malema, Zuma, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu and Helen Zille, The programme is called zanews. It’s hilarious. But don’t look for it on SABC. They refuse to screen it. You can view it only on the internet at www.zanews.co.za. Or on DVD -– a great idea in a country where the internet is so slow.
Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille on zanews.co.za
In his speech , Shapiro told the story of his nervousness at whether Tutu would like the puppet of himself, with his hooked nose and jutting chin greatly exaggerated. He needn’t have worried. Recently, Tutu phoned Shapiro to ask if the puppet could stand in for him at an event he was invited to, but could not attend.
Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu and Jonathan Shapiro
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