A big fuss, what's it all about?

This is written by Chris Roper, a journalist on news 24 - and quite insightful I think.

By now, you've all seen his recent cartoon of Jacob Zuma. It shows Zuma about to rape the Justice system, with the help of his sycophants from the ANCYL, the ANC, the SACP and Cosatu (the Acrognomes, as they're known down at the corner pub). Well, it doesn't actually show Zuma, it shows some idiot with a shower growing out of his head, which Zuma supporters tell me is Zuma. Who am I to disagree.

Is this good satire? Some might say no, but it sure is painstakingly accurate documentary realism. Others will say it insults Jacob Zuma, as if this is a criticism.

Talking point

Blah blah blah, you've read all the letters to the press, heard the bleating on talk radio, skimmed the wordy analyses by political commentators. And this is the point, really - Zapiro's cartoon has got everyone involved, because what it says is unambiguous and easily understood. And what it says is, Jacob Zuma and his Acrognomes are raping our justice system for their personal advantage.

There are no grays in Zapiro's cartoon, only black and white. Which is a criticism that some people have levelled at him. Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union spokesperson Benzi Ka-Soko, for example, "challenged Zapiro to draw something centring on whites' hold over most of the land in South Africa, and judges handing down racist judgments."

Zapiro has exposed white racism many times before, of course, but leaving that aside - it's hardly his fault that freedom has meant that there are now as many corrupt and self-serving blacks as there are mean-spirited, racist whites. Hey, that's progress! We're all equal-opportunity bastards nowadays, praise the revolution.