Zapiro’s cartoon in the Sunday Times, depicting a woman symbolising the justice system being held down by the ANC, SACP, ANCYL and Cosatu, with Julius Malema telling Jacob Zuma, who is unbuttoning his pants, to “go for it”, may well have crossed the line of what constitutes fair comment.
The cartoon seems to suggest that the ANC president is about to rape the criminal justice system with the parties set out above assisting him by holding “her” down.
While Zapiro is entitled to use the metaphor of rape to highlight local misgivings concerning the attack on the criminal justice system, it is in light of JZ’s acquittal for rape tantamount to a rejection of the findings of a judge operating within the system he seeks to protect.
Moreover, it shows a total lack of sensitivity to the aggressive nature of current South African discourse. I feel that Zapiro, as someone who does the most amazing work generally, has let himself down on this one.
His decision to withhold an apology is unfortunate.
Of course with all of the proverbial shit hitting the fan, one wonders whether the Sunday Times will do a David Bullard on Zapiro. If that were to be the case, it would be most unfortunate.
Regardless of whether or not you believe that the cartoon crosses the line, South Africa needs editors to be courageous right now.
More than ever before.
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