Corruption

No Room for Slippage: Cartoons for September and October, 2020

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In the face of a fierce and vitriolic fightback by the agents of corruption in the ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to achieve a tactical victory at a meeting of the NEC with members finally committing to act against comrades accused of corruption. He now faced the challenge, however, to give effect to the resolution, no easy task in a party riddled by factionalism and internal power plays.

The Democratic Part (DA) wrapped up its annual policy conference by adopting numerous policies, including one that said race was not a proxy of disadvantage when dealing with issues of redress. This was followed by reports that the party risked yet another exodus of senior members after opening investigations against several leaders with the intention of charging them, while others were planning to leave because they were disillusioned with the direction the official opposition has taken.

Six months after lockdown measures were imposed, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country would move to lockdown level 1 from Monday September 21. He also announced that an Economic Rescue Plan was being fast-tracked which was only to be expected given the contraction in the economy and the fact that the country was, by his own admission, now effectively bankrupt…

According to various sources, South African National Treasury officials reluctantly complied with orders to find funds to bail out the state airline, fearing they may erode the nation’s fiscal credibility. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni had long argued that the government can’t continue funding the national carrier, putting him at odds with the top leadership of the ruling ANC and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who insist it must keep flying,

The high profile sweep on officials and businesspeople implicated in the R255 Million Free State asbestos audit deal scandal was universally welcomed because there has been an overwhelming perception among the public that thievery, as the modus operandi of the tenderpreneurs, would remain unchecked. According to opposition parties, however, the arrests marked just the tip of the iceberg and further investigations were needed to bring all those involved to book.

Meanwhile, the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa said that the practices at the KwaSizabantu – which involved allegations of human rights abuses and money laundering – were damaging to the reputation of other churches…

Msunduzi administrator Scelo Duma described the SAP financial system as “the Achilles heal of Msunduzi”. The top-of-the-range software package, installed in 2016 to integrate the management of finances, had already cost the municipality over R251 Million and had continued to be plagued with problems.

South Africa wouldn’t be able to meet its finance ministry’s debt targets and it may be undesirable for it to attempt to do so at a time when the economy is being battered by the fallout from lockdown, according to an advisory panel appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa. In a more than 100-page document advising the government on an economic recovery programme that Ramaphosa was due to unveil the Presidential Economic Advisory Council said spending cuts would hold back growth and have adverse consequences.

The news that Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and his wife May have tested positive for Covid-19 was a reminder that people are still vulnerable despite the diminishing rate of infection in South Africa. It was especially sobering considering what is happening in the US and Europe where infection rates have begun to soar again as part of the ‘Second Wave’ of the pandemic.

Tabling his mid-term budget Finance Minister Tito Mboweni stressed the country was in trouble and that something needed to be done. Acknowledging that there was “no room for slippage” he promised to put a break on expenditure and rein in civil service salaries – something that would have to be seen to be believed, given that he lost his SAA arguments and had been forced to extend a R10,5billion lifeline to the bankrupt national airline.

More Cartoons from 2018

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Here is another selection of my political cartoons from 2018. Besides providing a pictorial history of some of the people, ideas and events that helped shape the year they will also, hopefully, give some clues as to where we may be headed in 2019.

Our erstwhile Number One, for example, has shown little inclination to emulate his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, by fading quietly in to the background – so it almost inevitable we will be hearing a lot more about Jacob Zuma. You can take it as read, too, that Julius Malema and the EFF will continue to push the boundaries of acceptable political behaviour and that Eskom will make the news for all the wrong reasons. Likewise, SAA, SABC and all our cash-strapped, disintegrating municipalities.

There will also be more stories about corruption and the misuse of public funds.

Another opportunity to practice my craft…

Internationally, you can rely on US President Donald Trump to keep banging on about his wretched Wall with Mexico while Britain will still be foundering on the rocks of Brexit.

If nothing else they will all provide abundant material for political cartoonists to practice their art…

So watch this space…

  • Jacob Zuma struggles to accept his days as the President of South Africa are numbered.
  • New President Cyril Ramaphosa doesn’t quite complete the job.
  • US President Donald Trump’s twin obsessions.
  • The DA loses some of the moral high ground with its mishandling of the Patricia De Lille affair.
  • Msunduzi’s long-suffering residents face more problems with their underperforming municipality.
  • NHI – big on ambition, lacking in detail.
  • Ex-President Jacob Zuma continues to live a charmed life
  • Consumers feel the squeeze after a VAT hike.
  • Uncertainty over the land issue continues to weigh down the economy.
  • Service delivery fails to improve.
  • EFF leader, Julius Malema, gets hoisted on his own petard.
  • President Cyril Ramaphosa faces some big decisions…

Book Review: wtf-Capturing Zuma- A Cartoonist’s Tale

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I think most editorial cartoonists will readily admit that they often find it difficult to send up politicians when they are making a so much better job of it themselves. This is, however, a problem that does not appear to faze South Africa’s best known caricaturist, Jonathan Shapiro (aka Zapiro), whose razor-sharp wit is on clear display in WTF: Capturing Zuma – A Cartoonist’s Tale, a book which demonstrates both his unerring eye for political failing and his powers of invention.

As its title implies, the anthology provides a front row seat in to the fractious – if at times almost symbiotic – relationship that developed between the artist and his ever dodging target, our erstwhile former Number One. The years of Zuma’s presidency certainly proved to be fertile ground for Zapiro which is perhaps hardly surprising, since, leaving aside the question of his private morality, it is difficult to argue that his effect on the country and its economy was anything other than disastrous.

From the outset Zapiro had the measure of his man. Five years before Zuma took over the ANC leadership he was already portraying him as damaged goods.

He also realised that for such a compromised and controversial figure he needed a far more hard-hitting, confrontational style of drawing than he had employed with, for example, Nelson Mandela. Refusing to recognise the limits imposed by decorum or good taste Zapiro hammered away at him again and again.

His Rape of Justice cartoon, in particular, provoked a storm of outrage and moral indignation especially within the ranks of the ruling ANC. Undeterred, Zapiro continued to rip apart his prey.

In the end his systematic and relentless caricature of Zuma probably did as much to destroy the President’s credibility than any number of columns, editorials or speeches from the opposition benches.

What Zapiro’s constant undermining of the president also proved is that cartoons still matter – a lot. They certainly mattered to Jacob Zuma who, in a misplaced attempt to silence him, served Zapiro with two lawsuits, totalling R22million, claiming the cartoons invaded his dignity.

Which begged the obvious retort – one that the artist himself was quick to seize on and make the subject of yet another witty, put-down, cartoon – what dignity? Needless to say, the matter never got to court.

Zapiro’s drawings have always tended to dominate the pages on which they appear. Wielding his pen like a scalpel, he manages to be both extremely funny and serious at the same time. As with all good satire, his cartoons are designed to entertain as well as to convince. Behind the often mordant humour one senses the fire of honest indignation that fuels all real political art.

Over the years he has carefully recrafted and subtly changed his depiction of Zuma. In doing so, he has, admittedly, been helped by the man himself, whose physiognomy, facial features and nervous tics and mannerisms have often unwittingly and unerringly betrayed his real character (his habit of shoving his glasses up his nose with his finger, his giveaway: “Heh, heh, heh”).

Probably Zapiro’s most inspired moment came when he decided to place a showerhead on Zuma’s oddly-shaped cranium after the then Deputy-President famously stated that he had taken a shower, following sex, because he believed it would reduce his chances of getting HIV (Zapiro admits he got the idea from the brilliant English cartoonist, Steve Bell, who delighted in drawing Prime Minister John Major all the time with his underpants outside his trousers).

The image was picked up and imitated by many. Even Julius Malema adopted it as a visual gesture of constant mockery.

In that sense, his showerhead became the defining symbol of the Zuma era (or “error” as Zapiro so aptly puts it). Like an ever dripping crown of shame, it perfectly captured the rotten-ness and moral bankruptcy of his chaotic, corrupt and scandal-ridden administration.