From the time the drawings of the Prophet Muhammad set the world alight, it’s been clear that cartooning — the right to draw — will be at the epicentre of media freedom debates. South Africa’s been a tinder-box too since ANC president Jacob Zuma sued Zapiro for defamation for attaching a shower to the head […]
News/Politics
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zapiro is spot on with his Zuma cartoon
South Africans do love to get their knickers in a twist, don’t we? The Sunday Times‘s Zapiro cartoon this past weekend had Jacob Zuma unbuttoning his knickers while Justice was being held down. I’m trying to finish a book, I’m late with three chapters and I keep getting asked — no doubt as someone who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What if Zuma wins?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: What if Zuma wins?
Posted inNews/Politics
Aussie political scandals: at least as entertaining as South African ones
In the annals of memorable quotations uttered by politicians, “Look at this, I’m tittie-f..king your mother!” must rank up there with “Read my lips, no new taxes” and “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”. This was the statement uttered by New South Wales politician Matt Brown, according to a witness quoted in […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
“Go for it, Li”: Zapiro in China
On the Zapiro cartoon uproar: I thought the portrayal of Zuma was brilliant but it did not elicit more from me than a grim, black chuckle. Sure, the cartoon is not meant to amuse; it is meant to deliver a heavyweight, jaw-breaking blow to hypocrisy and corruption and the complete disregard for the justice system. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A-pox-of-lipstick now!
Only in America! While the entire planet was focused on the CERN laboratory near the French-Swiss border, just in case our little world had its own Big Bang and like Humpty could not be put together again, the USA was making a matzos pudding about pigs and lipstick. Turns out that on Tuesday Barrack Obama, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
On Sarah Britten’s “Jacob Zuma, Zapiro (bless his satirical name) and Sarah Palin” article
Sarah Britten made a very astute observation on where the Zapiro (bless his satirical name) cartoon may be taking us all. Zuma may very well be re-written as a victim – for the nonce. Dream on girl – with this kind of writing ye may very well topple the mighty Traps. However, the furore created […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Best served before the Big Bang
I always thought that the “Big Bang” was the date that they stamped under cartons of food. Every time the government (Mrs Traps) serves us supper all the boxes are marked “best served before the Big Bang”, which considering that the Mark II is only starting in a tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border today, must […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zapiro, Zuma and us
With his latest Sunday Times cartoon, Zapiro has ventured where angels should fear to tread. I am saying “should” because it shows that journalist-cartoonists can be as desensitised as other South Africans about the social crises that beset us. I am talking about his shameless use of rape as metaphor. South Africa has been staggering […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Jacob Zuma defends the judiciary, or does he?
President of the ANC Jacob Zuma, when addressing students at University of Johannesburg, defended the right of free speech, indicating that the judiciary is not beyond reproach. Zuma is right that we must, as responsible citizens, hold our judicial system accountable. He said, “It can’t be said you can’t criticise the judiciary. That is what […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Drawing instructive lessons of leadership from champions of supreme iniquities
Great leaders leave for later generations the task of imitation and identify themselves through constant response to the rhythms of changing circumstances; they turn the inchoate emotions of the mob to the purpose of their own; they seize on the opportunities of their time, the confiding hopes, fears, frustrations, crises and potentialities; and they succeed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Turn to the Afrikaans community on police recruitment
A couple of months ago I was in Emalahleni (Witbank) to argue a culpable homicide matter in the local regional court. Unfortunately, due to problems with the magistrate we were unable to proceed with the trial on the day. As always, when matters are delayed, we spent a couple of hours milling around trying to […]