My buddy, Jonathan “Zapiro” Shapiro is having a bit of a cartoon controversy down in South Africa with the Zuma rape cartoon (right). Here are some excerpts from a Los Angeles Times article about the cartoon:

The cartoon shows Zuma preparing to rape the justice system, portrayed as a blindfolded woman pinned down by his political allies in the ANC, the Communist Party, unions and the ANC Youth League.

Published in the Sunday Times of Johannesburg, the cartoon lampoons a campaign by Zuma’s supporters to throw out charges of corruption, fraud and racketeering that he faces so he can seek South Africa’s presidency. In a country with one of the world’s highest rates of rape — and one deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Zuma, who was acquitted of rape charges in 2006 — the drawing has been explosive.

The nation’s high court is due to rule today on Zuma’s bid to have the charges against him dismissed …

As he has done since the 2006 rape trial, Zapiro drew Zuma as having a shower sprouting from his head — a reference to the party leader’s testimony that to avoid AIDS he showered after having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman. Zuma has thrice sued the cartoonist for libel. Two suits were withdrawn; the third is pending.

Quotes from Jonathan:

The central message is that Jacob Zuma is about to violate and rape the justice system with the help of his political allies. Justice is an allegorical figure but she does have a certain amount of humanity in the way I’ve drawn her, which added to the shock value. It’s [Zuma's] own rape trial, for which he was acquitted, that makes it more explosive.

It wasn’t my being worried about Zuma’s rape trial that made me think twice, three times, four times, five times before doing this drawing. It was women’s feelings I was more worried about. I sent the cartoon around to some very trusted female friends. The initial shock at seeing the drawing almost made people draw breath. You gasp when you see it. But within a brief amount of time they considered the drawing and said it’s valid both in terms of what it’s saying about Zuma’s violation of our justice system and our constitutional tenets but also in terms of the very violent and patriarchal society that we have …

There were plenty of people who were offended by it, but what I found fascinating is that on some of the talk shows where I have taken some flak, the proportion of flak-givers is much higher from men than women. There was one call that came from a gang-rape victim, who said that she was shocked by it and felt very uncomfortable, but then she proceeded to support it.