How much of what you know about South African politics have you learnt from political cartoons in your favourite newspaper? Everyone loves to read cartoons by Zapiro, Jeremy Nell and many other controversial cartoonists, and the question “What will they get away with next?” never fails to surface in conversation.

“South African cartooning has finally come of age,” cartoonists and editors Andy Mason and John Curtis say in their book Don’t Joke!, a collection of work from the country’s best political cartoonists.
Political cartoons are a direct and often shocking portrayal of what is going on in the world around us, but what effect do they have, both on the public and on the issues they depict?

“I think cartoons are a very important tool for commenting, because cartoons enable you to say things which you wouldn’t be able to say in writing,” says Brian Garman, Journalism and Media Studies design and semiotics lecturer. “Zapiro and a lot of other cartoonists regard themselves as columnists and political commentators”.

The meaning and depth a political cartoon can convey is truly astonishing. “Images are an economic way of saying a lot. Cartoons can say things beyond a simple image, and are very often stronger than the written word,” says Garman. “More people look at cartoons than actually read the paper!”

A few pertinent questions have recently been raised about the ethics, rights, responsibilities and boundaries of political cartooning by the way in which Jacob Zuma was depicted by famous South African cartoonist Zapiro in his increasingly risqué cartoons showing the president as a vulgar, dim-witted and licentious criminal.

In the case that finally pushed the president over the edge, Zapiro had insinuated that he was “raping” the justice system. President Zuma retaliated by filing a lawsuit against the outspoken cartoonist. Is this a sign of limited press and media freedom in South Africa, or have satirists and cartoonists gone too far?

“When you start suing cartoonists, you look like a complete twit,” says Garman.

“I think it sends out a message that the state of South Africa is a sensitive topic at the moment,” owner and founder of Laugh it Off Justin Nurse said in an interview with German radio station FM4.
David Fleminger, a writer, feels that cartoonists are just doing their job. “For hundreds of years, political cartoonists have used the power of illustration to mock, belittle, ridicule and deflate those powerful forces which they see as being corrupt. The kings of Europe had to deal with them. American presidents have had to deal with them. Who knows? Maybe there are even some hieroglyphics carved on the wall of a pyramid which read ‘Pharaoh is a bastard’,” he said in his Times Live blog ‘In My Humble Opinion’.

Cartoons have been effective in highlighting issues the public should be aware of for centuries, and they have also been an effective regulatory measure to remind politicians and other people in positions of power that they are under public scrutiny. “It’s important that that voice is still out there,” says Garman. “Unless there are voices pointing out and making seen what is potentially being hidden, it will stay hidden”.

About the author: Kayla is currently a first-year Journalism and Media Studies student at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She writes for student newspaper Activate under the Politics, Business, and Opinions sections, and she is also a sub-editor. Her other subjects are Economics, English, History and Sociology. She devours books. She is also one of the blessed few who enjoy working. She is involved with SHARC (Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign) at Rhodes and is busy with a course in Peer Education. She loves watching art films and her guilty pleasure is shopping.

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Comments (1)

• |2010-08-14 14:12:28 Erna Buber-deVilliers  - The court jester
  “When you start suing cartoonists, you look like a complete twit.”
  
  I think it's worse than that - although it's pretty bad to have a twit for a president. An insecure despot could not allow a court jester to poke fun at his Sire, but the wise leader of a healthy kingdom (or democracy) should seek astute and witty criticism as a barometer of his rule, and to help him remember that he's only human.
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