Zapiro vs Zuma
Jacob Zuma isn’t all that difficult to lampoon as seen below.
His physical attributes and demeanour are the stuff cartoonists dream of. Not to mention his financial, criminal and sexual indiscretions.
And regardless of how biographers, friends and colleagues describe the man as a good political strategist, he comes across as rather clueless.
The silly grin on his face doesn’t help one bit.
So it’s no surprise to see cartoons of Zuma done by the country’s best known satirical cartoonist, Jonathan Zapiro.
One wonders though why Zapiro currently limits his most vicious satire to Jacob Zuma. Why doesn’t he lampoon other political figures in quite the same nasty way?
We have:
- Cape Town mayor and self-confessed saviour of Cape Town, South Africa and probably the entire world, Helen Zille. This woman is as much fodder for ridicule with her botoxed face, silly patronising dancing and black entourage.
- Badly dressed and in need of a haircut and make-over Patricia De Lille. You can ask her any question, including about the weather and she’ll manage to bring the arms deal into the conversation.
- COPE’s desperate attempts at a moral campaign using religion as platform.
In the cartoon featured above, Zapiro depicts Zuma as a brainwasher, but his attempts at doing the same thing with the opposite result is contributing to the Zuma effect.
The more one-sided Zuma criticism becomes the stronger his support base becomes.
Don’t stop criticising Zuma – just spread the ridicule around, so that when the criticism is necessary it carries more weight.
2 Responses to “Zapiro vs Zuma”
By Celia Phillips on Apr 13, 2009 | Reply
I think the point is that Zuma is guilty of far worse than a bad haircut, botox, or talking about the arms deal all the time.
By Abigail Abrahams on Apr 13, 2009 | Reply
Celia,
I take your point, though it still irritates me that Zuma’s legend is growing because of the perceived bias of the media.
The media and Thabo Mbeki made Zuma into the anti-hero and now we have to live with it.
I wasn’t saying don’t criticise Zuma, but spread the criticism around a bit more, because it is deserved all round. Zapiro’s cartoons are normally based on political and social satire – well there are enough politicians to go around.