INLSA
The symbol of Jacob Zuma and the shower head was used by Julius Malema to take a stab at the ANC leader he once backed. Photo: Jennifer Bruce
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Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, aka Zapiro, says irony best describes Julius Malema’s use of a shower head as a caricature of President Jacob Zuma.
Malema made the gesture of raising his hand over his head and extending his fingers to mimic a shower head as he led supporters in a song at the ANC’s Limpopo conference on Saturday.
Loosely translated from Sepedi, the song “Shawara ya re sokodisa” laments that “the shower man is giving us a hard time”.
“The irony is that Malema has come from a place so deeply embedded in the Zuma camp and (now) he’s attacking him using the shower device,” said Shapiro, who Zuma is suing for R5 million in damages over a 2008 “Rape of Lady Justice” cartoon, set for trial in the Johannesburg High Court on August 28 next year.
Asked whether the shower device could gain more traction now that Malema had used it, Shapiro said Zuma’s political enemies were always looking for any possible weakness in his armour.
“Whichever faction has something against Zuma might pick it up regardless of whether they had earlier poured scorn on the original usage of the shower head.”
And although some of Shapiro’s fans had asked him to move away from the caricature, he said it had a lot of potency.
Shapiro said the shower had gained so much popularity that he heard that deaf people had started using it in sign language to describe Zuma.
“I heard some hip hop star, visiting South Africa, when asked who the president was, answered that ‘It is some guy with a shower on his head’.”
Zuma first received the shower head treatment during his rape trial in 2006, after he had testified at the Johannesburg High Court that he had taken a shower after having unprotected sex with a woman who he knew was HIV-positive in the mistaken belief it would minimise the chances of infection. He apologised shortly afterwards.
The shower head above Zuma disappeared for a short while after his election as president, but returned as he was besieged by sex scandals along with the introduction of the Protection of State Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal.
Malema also did not escape Shapiro’s pen, becoming the main subject in 2009, dressed in only a nappy, his mouth filled with a pacifier saying he would “kill for Zuma”.
Now Shapiro says he won’t let the opportunity slip, and plans to use Malema’s latest show of defiance in a cartoon. – Cape Times
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