Our good friend, South African cartoonist Zapiro, has become involved in a new controversy surrounding a painting of South African President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed.
“The Spear,” which features Zuma in a pose reminiscent of Lenin, was created by artist Brett Murrary as part of his “Hail to the Thief II” exhibition in Johannesburg. Zuma has been a target for satirists in South Africa for years due to his polygamous lifestyle with many wives and girlfriends.
Zuma told the media he was “shocked, and felt personally offended and violated” when he saw Murray’s painting for the first time, claiming it depicts him as “a philanderer, a womaniser and one with no respect”. The African National Congress has launched a court application in an attempt to stop the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg and the City Press from displaying the painting.
Zapiro, Zuma’s number one critic and the top political cartoonist in South Africa, entered the fray with his own cartoon supportive of Murrary’s painting. It features Zuma in the same pose as Murrary’s painting, but replaces his exposed genitals with Zapiro’s trademark showerhead, which is always on Zuma’s head in his cartoons (After having sex with an HIV positive girl, Zuma claimed he was safe from infection because he took a shower afterward).
Zapiro went even further with today’s cartoon, featuring Zuma complaining from the official seat of the South African government, Die Uniegebou (The Union Buildings). Only Zapiro has slightly altered the architecture…
