Zapiro aka Jonathan Shapiro - one of the bravest and most adroit cartoonists in the world – last week faced a barrage of criticism following his latest South African rape analogy.
Well done Zapiro! Please don't back down. Yours is one of the few voices of reason - a voice refusing to be hushed in a society where speaking the truth is becoming increasingly difficult. When speaking out against injustice - journalists, political commentators, whistle blowers and even thousands of peaceful protesters - are immediately and bizarrely tagged as racists. And in a country where being seen as racist is far worse than being a thief or a murderer, the righteous back down.
Attempting to air a viewpoint by engaging in open, high level debate, proves futile as 'fake arguments' and propaganda always win the day when aimed at ears eager to be convinced by lies. Compared to academic excellence and fastidious hard work; looting, blame shifting and name calling are often easier and faster ways of getting your hands in the cookie jar.
In Zapiro's case he was taken to task by various groups whose arguments mostly do not hold water. Women felt offended by the rape analogy, saying apart from trivialising rape, it is a banal image harking back to colonial days with former occupied territories depicted as being female: "India was raped by England". Comparing the brutalisation of a woman's body to the fleecing of state coffers was also labelled as sexist.
Trivialising rape? Everything but.
A small group is bleeding South Africa dry and the effect is not unlike a tsunami. (Thank you Vavi - you said it first.) Their actions have a snowball effect. By stealing our money, these leeches are perpetuating poverty, causing socioeconomic problems, keeping people uneducated, facilitating domestic strife and therefore creating a fertile breeding ground for horrendous crimes - including rape.
As for the image being colonial - the invasion of countries and war in general, more often than not, go hand in hand with the brutalisation and rape of women.
Not admitting it, does not make it less true.
And isn't Mother Earth and Mother Nature a beautiful way to portray our only home?
Zapiro's cartoon of Jacob Zuma and one of the Guptas raping South Africa - our motherland - is a stark depiction of reality, nothing else.
It is an image that hits you between the eyes, including those who would prefer not to see.
But even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. In the bigger scheme of things South Africans may be sitting pretty. My aunt in Australia is getting very anxious.
Should Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Yong-un come to blows, Down Under is just too close to Kim the Young One for comfort.
BY ILSE SCHOONRAAD, GEORGE HERALD EDITOR
