ANC horrified by Zuma cartoon

2008-09-08 19:02

Johannesburg - A weekend cartoon suggesting African National Congress president Jacob Zuma was ready to rape the justice system was "disgusting" the ANC, its youth league and the South African Communist Party said on Monday.

The organisations said the cartoon was "distasteful and borders on defamation of character".

The cartoon by Jonathan Shapiro, known as Zapiro, appeared in the Sunday Times newspaper.

It shows a woman, wearing a sash with the words "Justice System", being pinned down by ANCYL president Julius Malema and the secretaries general of tri-partite alliance partners the ANC, SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions - Gwede Mantashe, Blade Nzimande and Zwelinzima Vavi.

Zuma looks on while unzipping his pants, with Mantashe urging him to "Go for it, boss!".

'Abuse disguised as press freedom'

The organisations said the Sunday Times had disguised abuse as press freedom in publishing the cartoon.

"The cartoon rubbishes the collective integrity of the alliance and constitutes yet another continued violation of the rights and dignity of the ANC president."

The organisations said they had never attacked the judiciary, but criticised unfair treatment of Zuma in a normal public discourse of a democracy.

"There can, therefore, be no justification for such unwarranted insult on our leadership by the Sunday Times."

The organisations said the Sunday Times's editor Mondli Makhanya was a "ranting dictator who finds joy in manipulating the truth" and that his integrity and credibility were called into question.

Violence against women

Zapiro, said the ANC, ANCYL and SACP, had been "consistent in unwarranted attacks on the movement and its leadership.

"In a country where we have a serious scourge of fighting violence against women and in particular, rape, we need to be very careful how we use the notion and the concept of rape loosely to demonstrate any form of perceived abuse."

The organisations said the "hard-earned, good public perceptions" of the ANC and alliance could not be swayed by any amount of "half-truths" the Sunday Times published.

Cosatu also expressed disgust at the cartoon.

"While we accept that cartoonists have the licence to express controversial views, yesterday's cartoon is in extremely bad taste and goes way beyond limits of acceptability," Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement.

Comment from Makhanya and Zapiro was not immediately available.

- SAPA