Is there a cobra under the South African carpet like the proverbial elephant in the room, defined by Wikipedia as “an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed”? Is there a near future in which the South African media will find itself, or parts of itself, suppressed for the first time since PW Botha successfully stilled its bark two decades ago?
The “cobra”, in Pieter-Dirk Uys’s own interpretation of the idiom, is the possible threat to democratic freedoms by a government led by a man whose recent behaviour rings alarm bells. The cause of Uys’s alarm: Zuma’s lawsuit against cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro).
There was something naked about Pieter-Dirk Uys as he stood on the stage of the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town addressing a press conference to express his fears about a future under Jacob Zuma. Marginally more naked at his side, beneath a covered easel, was his alter ego Evita Bezuidenhout, soon revealed in a cross-over bra at the heart of a painting after French artist Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. You had to consider the unasked question: would our beloved Tannie Evita ever be naaied by our president-in-waiting? Politically speaking, of course. You knew, obviously, that she would shower afterwards, and Uys had a puppet of Jacob Zuma with him on stage, shower-head and all, ready to rush to his alter ego’s aid.
In ons eie new version of the famous work by artist Nina van der Westhuizen, Evita is as near as naked as her modesty would allow as the seventh Mrs Zuma, leading, in Uys’s words, “the total onslaught against Constitutional Freedom on the barricades of our young democracy”. In “Tannie leads the People”, Uys’s satirical alter ego has a reluctant entourage including a gun-toting Julius Malema, Tutu looking worried, Carl Niehaus looking jobless and even lifeless, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at Evita’s feet, Mbeki looking vanquished, Malema looking out of control, and Motlanthe merely looking on.
A man who had the courage to savage successive apartheid governments through humour now found himself facing what he perceived as the possibility of the media and arts having to face off new threats to hard-won freedoms. He averred that, in those dark days of the 80s, it was only his white skin that saved him: “I had the advantage of being white. If I had been black I would not be alive today.”
Many media voices in those days were successfully stilled by the PW Botha government’s draconian legislation and successive states of emergency, he reminded us. “The greatest problem in those days was self-censorship. I hope this is not going to be the case in a month’s time.”
I chatted to Pieter-Dirk after last night’s opening performance at the Baxter Theatre of his Elections & Erections, and he reiterated something to which he had averred at the earlier press conference. I remarked that the one thing we do not yet know about Jacob Zuma is what he will be like as president. Cometh the hour, will the man show himself to be the kind of leader we hope for? We agreed: it can happen, we hope desperately it will happen, but … well, the portents cannot be ignored, and are only ignored by fools. “I am an optimist,” Uys said, “but I am also a realist, and I am not a fool”.
Most important, he said, was to ring the warning bell BEFORE Zuma becomes president. The bell has been rung before any of our democratic freedoms have been eroded. It is time, as one visiting academic cautioned in the Cape Times this morning, to be vigilant and to start being more vocal about our opposition to any erosion of our freedoms. It is time for South Africans, and for the media, to stand up, stick our necks out, and say with all the courage of a Desmond Tutu, a Suzman or, let’s be honest, a Pieter-Dirk Uys: No you can’t!
And for more on Uys’s delicious undoing of Obama’s US election campaign slogan, see his hysterically funny but sobering Elections & Erections at the Baxter. Thank God we have voices like his, and Tutu’s, and Zapiro’s, in the times ahead – and please God we will still have those voices. As Uys says in the show’s darkest moment, there are times when he fears that, when voices like those of Suzman, Mandela and Tutu have all gone, we will be left alone.
All of us in the media and arts must stand with such voices and say what needs to be said as loudly and clearly as we can muster. Here’s to a bright and happy future, or, if the worst fears come true, to a media with the balls to publish and be damned.
i really think Zapiro went over-board with Zuma, especially the distateful rapist cartoon. So Zuma has every right to pursue this matter forward. Journalists cannot be allowed to do as they please for media freedom. Clearly South Africans do not understand media freedom. It comes with responsibilities, just like any other freedom. But if Zuma was offended he has every-right to take it up with the courts.
Zapiro’s gang-rape cartoon debasing Zuma and women went overboard for satire. It does more to damage race relations, lower public morale and trivialize rape.
I don’t think however, that Zuma should pursue legal action. Maybe media watchdog groups should figure out other ways of keeping a check on the cartoonist since he is human and prone to error like everyone else.
Max
You are the one who does not understand. Especially you don’t understand that Zuma is a politician paid with taxpayers money. Once he takes that job, which no one forces him to do, he has very few rights left. He belongs to the people – because the people pay him. He is not the employer – but the employee.
And poor old P-D Uys, still dressing in skandalige drag as Evita and trundling out dieselfde ou grappie, ne?
All very extremely stale now. Very vintage PW, when it still caused a bit of a frisson.
Now it’s only barely passable as a Nando advert.
P-D got saved by being white? So where are the black satirists now? Very conspicious by their absence, as are the large black audiences laughing at mockeries of the antics of Zuma and cronies. Well, step up to the plate, ladies, gentlemen, audiences. You want to be respected and treated as equals. So it should be, but for that a little self-examination and mockery is a requirment. Little children, weak people and terrorised societies can’t take self-mockery and satire. Strong ones thrive on it. Choose what you are. I see Max chose his identity.
Shapiro is mostly spot on. Putting most of Zuma’s latest scrambles in one picture is classic.
Naturally, Zuma has the right to feel offended and seek compensation. He might even need the money.
Shapiro might find a lawyer (from the Zuma team) who knows how to get charges dropped or drag the case out for so long (Hlope, Motata) that even the courts give up.
We are all looking forward to Zuma’s day in court. Aren’t we?
@Dave Harris,
“Zapiro’s gang-rape cartoon debasing Zuma and women went overboard for satire. It does more to damage race relations, lower public morale and trivialize rape”.
As far as I am concerned satire is supposed to go overboard. I don’t see how the cartoon lowered public morale, and most women I heard on the radio and writing to newspapers were overwhelmingly supportive of the cartoon. Zapiro himself confirmed that women had been very supportive of the cartoon. Many of these women were rape survivors.
Maybe men should allow women to be more vociferous as to what they think trivialises rape than attempt to speak for them. Let’s be supportive of women rather than spokesmen for them.
As for race relations being damaged, there are far more damaging things being said and done by all races in South Africa that are far more damaging.
You know Jeff, if this was the US or some other older democracy, I’d tend to agree with you. However, what you don’t seem to understand is the sensitivity of the issues that this cartoon rubs against especially for blacks. This is not the US or the UK, apartheid DID happen! Black men and black women in SA bear the brunt of much of the the violence we experience. The voices you hear on the radio supporting the cartoonist behavior is most likely from privileged white women. How in the world is this disgusting cartoon supportive of women?
The problem with trying to argue over this with you, is that you, like much of the media, are too blinded by your hatred for Zuma to see the bigger picture of the damage wrought by this outrageous cartoon. Zuma has already filed began legal action against the cartoonist, and when he assumes power there will be more fallout from this. Watch this space. Can you guess what this means to a free press? Do you care about SA having a free press?
Its sad to see many whites in SA , especially the media, consistently fail to empathize with blacks and prefer instead to viciously attack and dehumanize black leaders like Zuma and Malema. While you may think this is clever, funny and wonderful satire, that not how the masses of South Africans see it. Guess what, you can be sure the chickens will surely come home to roost.
Jeff
What has been damaging to AIDS programmes in the schools is Zuma’s shower comments. Children keep saying “I don’t need a condom, I can take a shower like Zuma”.
Which is why the longer that Zapiro ridicules the shower the better.
Dave Harris – “This is not the US or the UK, apartheid DID happen!” what a naive remark. There was lots of institutionalised racism in the US well into the nineteen sixties in different states and the UK is notorious for racists.I know I have lived there. See the film, “This is England”.
Viva Zapiro, Tutu and UYs, and viva M&G for its ballsy criticism of what I think is going to be a new, oppressive regime.
@Dave Harris
“The voices you hear on the radio supporting the cartoonist behavior is most likely from privileged white women. How in the world is this disgusting cartoon supportive of women?”
Just how privileged are these white women who were raped, Dave? Whatever the colour of their skin or socio/economic circumstances, now or in the past; I fail to see how it reflects on their status as rape survivors who supported Zapiro’s cartoon.
To you the cartoon is outrageous. To me it’s an outstanding satire on events that were taking place in SA in general, and around JZ in particular at a specific moment in our political and legal history.
People talk of “rape of the justice system” and little is thought about it. Zapiro’s genius was putting it in a picture so that everyone could see exactly what is meant by those words.
Incidentally, I have plenty of empathy with the suffering of SA blacks. I have none with the leadership of the ANC and their acolytes.
@Dave Harris (contd.)
Zuma and Malema dehumanize themselves, not to mention the dehumanizing of women and homosexuals that Zuma has portrayed in some statements. The media report on what these people are saying and doing. If you don’t like being satirized stay out of politics, it goes with the territory.
No doubt how the majority of SA “masses” see it will be reflected in the polls. They also, little doubt, see the death penalty, no abortion and the criminalization of homosexuality as being acceptable. So much for the views “the masses”.
The way to protect freedom of speech is to stand up and fight for it, using every legal means at one’s disposal. To not publish “offensive satire” is to accede that you have lost the fight before it has started.
@Lyndall Beddy
Now I realize why I can’t get onto your blog from the link.
There was a black Aids activist on SAFM last week sayin how when they talk to kids in the schools they are laughed at, and the kids tell them they will just shower after sex and they will be OK.
Maybe there is reason for me to hate Zuma after all!
@Rod
I think I already advised you to stick to writing your memoirs rather than dabble in politics
@Jeff
“I have plenty of empathy with the suffering of SA blacks. I have none with the leadership of the ANC”
OK, help me understand this paradox. JZ is a charismatic leader of a significant portion of the masses, irregardless of how much you may hate him. An analogy might be – Even though you divorce your wife because you cannot stand her, she is still the mother of your kids and deserves respect. Dehumanizing her will only result in destroying the very ones you love.
Of course we need to protect freedom of speech, but no civilized democracy allows unfettered freedom of speech. Could you explain this “brilliant satire” to your kids? What if JZ was your father – would you subject him to the same humiliation?
@Dave Harris
To repeat myself. I don’t hate Jacob Zuma. I have contempt for the man. I wouldn’t waste my emotions on hatred for him.
I fail to see the relevance of your analogies to Zapiro’s satire.
Firstly. If I divorced my wife, my subsequent behaviour towards her and any offspring of the marriage, would depend on any number of things. Why would I respect anyone solely for being the mother of my kids? Circumstances change.
JZ is the father of many, many children, fortunately I’m not one of them. Wrong colour, wrong age.
Like JZ my father was uneducated. He was however an intelligent, moral and generous person. He knew right from wrong. When I was a student, one night of drunkeness I stole a beer glass from a pub. The next morning my father made my take it back, and made it clear if I did anything of the sort again, he would personally take me to the police and lay a charge against me, and he would put up with any humiliation I had brought on him and the family.
I repeat, Jacob Zuma has brought any humiliation on himself. I don’t care how charismatic he is. So was Hitler and he also had the support of the masses in his time. Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini: bags of charisma and mass support they all had.
Incidentally, my wife and I have no kids, been together 28 years.
Dave Harris you worry that there could be fallout for media freedom from all of this debacle. So you would advocate self-censorship to avoid offense?
You asked Jeff if he would subject his father to such ridicule. If my father ever acted so repugnantly I would hold him up to satire, anger and ridicule.
@Jeff
No, you are dead wrong. Zuma did not bring this humiliation on himself the media crucified him. There will be a consequences to this which I certainly am not looking forward to.
@Michael Francis
Certainly, I think some basic common sense is needed.
When the machine gun song is the future president’s celebratory song you can be darn right you need to wake up from your complacency and smell the coffee. It is not going to be business as usual anymore.
The point of the analogy was not about anyones father in particular but to illustrate the respect one human has for another irregardless of ones disagreements or hatred. Respect and care for one’s elders runs is a strong African tradition. In case you forgot, you are living in Africa.
@Dave Harris
OK Dave, Zuma is as pure as the driven snow. The media just made all that stuff up. There never were any charges against Zuma. I don’t know where the media got such an idea.
Maybe that’s one of the things wrong with African culture. They just give blind respect to anyone older than themselves, no matter how atrocious their behaviour. Just as well for the Germans that they had such a lot of respect for Hitler. If they had shown less respect then we would have missed out completely on the joys of World War 2.
Just because something is a tradition doesn’t make it right Dave. There are certain traditions that are best written off. Respect is just fine, WHEN IT IS EARNED, whatever one’s tradition. When respect is just given willy nilly you are just a slave to the whims of the “Elder” or whoever.
Michael and I both know you are generalising about fathers. The same arguments apply. If one just respects a father because he is your father then you fail to have any notion of right or wrong. If any father is a thief, liar, abuser them what gives him the right to respect from his children?
@Jeff
While you encourage the media to belittle, dehumanize and compare Zuma
to Hitler etc., you put everyones freedom at risk.
While you cannot afford Zuma basic respect as another human being,
just like you, you sell your own humanity short.
Peace.
Dave,
So I must just respect someone because they are a human being? Sorry, a human being has to earn respect from other human beings.
We are obviously going to have to agree to diagree on this one.