The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The above quote comes from former South African health minister (controversially axed by president Thabo Mbeki earlier in the year) Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, speaking at the launch (in the unlikely environs of a busy supermarket) of a new collection of cartoons by one of South Africa’s top political cartoonists Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro. Madlala-Routledge noted that Zapiro often scared “the living daylights” out of the country’s politicians but despite this remarked that the cartoonist was a national institution and such cartooning satire was enormously important in a democratic society. How refreshing – compare this to yesterday’s shameful news from Spain, for instance.

(Robert Mugabe by Zapiro)

Zapiro himself recalled an apartheid-era minister attacking cartoonists, then drew an uncomfortable parallel with a more recent tirade against cartoonist by ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama, which, to my mind, is exactly why we need good political cartoonists, so politicians of all stripes know we’re aware of what’s going on. It’s also rarely a good idea to create a spat with cartoonists and other satirists in public because they are usually wittier than the politician complaining and will run rings round them, making them look rather silly, not to mention lacking in humour, something few voters find attractive I suspect. He hasn’t exactly gone easy on international targets either – witness his cartoon of Dubyah below.

Natasha Joseph at IOL has a full report and also a video of the launch, with politicians, media types and other artists sipping wine and mixing around the fruit and veg section of the market; the South African Cartoonists’s website has a good gallery of Zapiro’s work, with more on the Mail & Guardian’s cartoon archive. Some may be hard to get without a knowledge of the current political scene in South Africa, but most are very fine political cartoons which are accessible to anyone I think, so go and have a good browse.

(“Below the breadline”, today’s Zapiro cartoon from the Media & Guardian)