This probably didn't make the news outside Mzansi

[MajGenl.Meade]

Zapiro is the bravest cartoonist in SA. Zuma is suing him for this one (from 2008):



And he followed that up last year with this one, making it clear that people need to be aware of the controversial Protection of Information Bill:




In the latter ANC effort to muzzle democracy, any government or parastastal entity is entitled to declare a document "top secret" and if any part of it is publicised, the leaker and the media go to jail. So SAFA (the Football Association) could declare any of its papers TS and then sue when the journos write about it - theory. The fact is that there is NO public interest defense...... corruption shelter?

And Lady Justice's ordeal is not yet over:

Top lawyers are up in arms over Justice Minister Jeff Radebe's plans to abolish bar councils and the law society and replace them with a state-controlled institution. The plans, contained in a 153-page Legal Practice Bill re-submitted to parliament this week, will also give the minister the power to cap legal fees which, Radebe says, are now higher than those charged in cities such as New York.

Passed in its current form by parliament, the bill - which has been on the cards for almost a decade - would absorb the Law Society of SA and all bar councils into a new South African Legal Practice Council which would be in charge of regulating the profession. The proposed council would report directly to the justice minister. However the bill is set to put Radebe on a collision course with the General Bar Council of SA and the LSSA, which have both raised serious concerns. The two bodies said on Friday they would fight what they interpreted as a threat to the independence of the legal profession.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/ ... ol-lawyers

[Crackpot]

I think I heard something about this some weeks ago on NPR

[Sue U]

Wow, that is some tough cartooning. Brave is an understatement, given the historically casual treatment of free speech and rule of law in SA.

I've heard a number of radio stories on Zapiro but never saw his work until today. Thanks for showing these, and reminding me to look.

[Guinevere]

Brutal and brave. Wow. Surely (and sadly) makes the point loudly and clearly.

[Scooter]

Is Mr. Zapiro alive and walking free? That's certainly more than would have been the case had he drew such a cartoon criticizing the South African government under white minority rule.

Which is not to say that the ANC has not become corrupted by being in a seemingly unassailable position of power for so long. But there's something a little unseemly about the litany of abuses that are continually paraded in press organs that never saw fit to criticize the South African government in the days of minority rule. The subtext appears to be, "you see, we told you the blacks were incapable of governing themselves."

[MajGenl.Meade]

There may be elements of truth there Scooter but I think you overstate the case by quite a lot in suggesting the media "never saw fit" to criticize the apartheid regime. This is from the current SA Consulate General (NY) website http://www.southafrica-newyork.net/oldc ... e/news.htm:

History of the Press in South Africa

During the apartheid era, newspapers had to apply for registration if they published more than 11 times a year. An arbitrary amount was also required before registration was approved.

The government also enforced regulations controlling what newspapers could or could not publish, especially relating to articles and comment on activities against the apartheid system. Newspapers were, for instance, not allowed to quote banned organisations and their spokesmen, or report on conditions inside prisons or the activities of the security forces.

At the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s, when two states of emergency were declared, censorship regulations were tightened. Newspapers were barred from reporting on any demonstrations or activity against the apartheid government or any of its laws.

The threat of closure forced newspaper editors to apply a self-censorship policy, while other papers printed blank pages or whole paragraphs blacked out as a sign of protest.

Even a generally hostile (to whites) alternative view at http://ixwa.hubpages.com/hub/Blaming-Th ... g-Africans agrees that newspapers (particularly 'English' as opposed to Afrikaans) were prevented by government, by police (and in the case of the latter especially by concerns about advertizing and by racial solidarity as you indicate) from openly reporting.

I think you also discredit the genuine desire of South Africans, in the main and not perfectly of course, to live in a multi-racial democracy free from racial bias and classification. The ANC problem (and not all ministers are black by the way) is that it is increasingly becoming the Nationalists in all but name and open declaration. Given the trend continuing, in five or ten or fifteen years (and the lower number seems more likely) Zapiro will be in prison along with his colleagues, black and white, who dare to report on the abuses of power engaged in by the government.

The Constitutional conference created one of the most liberal constitutions in the world (always an advantage to do this kind of thing after everyone else has) and the ANC now desires, more than anything, to restrict that Constitution. That is, they do not want the independent judiciary to stay independent. The problem for them is that the judges - mostly black - seem to want to say whether or not Parliament's laws and ANC diktats are consitutional. This is a gross violation of "democracy" - it is contary to the spirit of "advancement" and "equality" - it is simply not good enough for unelected people to say what is and is not legal.

Secondly, the ANC wants to place the media under government control via the Information act - the newspapers are "gossips" when they report on abuses by the leadership - of millions of rands being spent on cars, hotels, trips abroad, shopping, visiting mistresses and so on. They are "usurping the legal process" (see above for irony) when they report on the massive, and you'd best believe it Scooter, corruption of the power elites (black and white) who are robbing the poor and the disadvantaged (sorry "previously disadvantaged" because their lives are now just fine, just fine).

The issue is not at all that "blacks can't govern". THE best voices here are black. The opposition is mostly black - when COSATU and others helped ruin the toll-gate boondoggle in Joburg that was black people the ANC was forced to listen to - they don't give a monkey's fcuk what white people think.

But I agree you will find racist arseholes who say things like "they" can't do this and "they" can't do that. Those kinds of people have no voice though. Except on the internet and in tweeting I suppose.

And maybe you should take a look at a newspaper like "The Sowetan" - you are not going to be able to say those folks think "blacks can't govern" - they think that corrupt swine can't govern. And they are quite right

Meade

[rubato]

It is a tribute to the success of the transition that we are seeing abuses of power at this level and not the arbitrary killing of dissidents which you would expect if the black majority had adopted the morals and practices of the white minority government they replaced.



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

That really is extraordinarily brave....

There is not a newspaper in this country that would publish a cartoon like that about any leading political figure in either party...

Of course we don't have a whole lot of top tier politicians who have been tried for rape, so maybe the joke wouldn't be as relevant...

[MajGenl.Meade]

It is a tribute to the success of the transition that we are seeing abuses of power at this level and not the arbitrary killing of dissidents which you would expect if the black majority had adopted the morals and practices of the white minority government they replaced. yrs, rubato

As to arbitrary killings (and why say "arbitrary"?) you might want to take a careful look at the SAPS and the intelligence division and people like Mdluli - the just now newly appointed head of the Gestapo by Zuma and even more recently shunted aside again by Zuma in the face of fierce public protest over the murder investigation that was mysteriously closed along with the corruption charges. For a few days, Mdluli was the only person in SA who could authorize a wire-tap on his own phones - how convenient. As I said - the ANC are just black Nat-wannabes.

And yes, we do expect it. It is a tribute to the success of the people, the media and of the courts that it has been staved off this long. (And it is not "the black majority" that is the cause of concern - it is the ANC and what it has become and is becoming, something that Nelson Mandela would not endorse).

Chances are that Zuma is finished come December and we can expect Blade Nzimande to call the shots from behind our current VP Kgalema Motlanth. Since the conference is here in Bloem we are looking forward to an interesting summer.

Meade

PS Lawyer Mvuseni Ngubane was found shot in his head at his home in Pinetown on Saturday (12 May). Police found a pistol and a suicide note next to the body.

"A suicide note was found. It was not readable because it was drenched in blood. No foul play is suspected and an inquest docket has been opened," said Mdunge.

Zuma told mourners that he saw Ngubane on the morning of the day he died, and he had not shown any signs that he was contemplating suicide. “He was his usual self, jolly and laughing. If there is anyone who owes Ngubane something it would be me, because he has given me free legal advice in the past.”

Ngubane was appointed secretary of the arms deal commission a few months ago. President Jacob Zuma is a key subject of investigation in the arms deal corruption case.