Julius Malema Pulls the Race Card on Zapiro

Yes, I think the cartoon was in bad taste and, whilst conveying the convictions of a ton of people in this country, in general I think it was a mistake on Zapiro’s part. What I find completely ludicrous however is Julius Malema’s suggesting that the only motivation that lies behind such a cartoon is racism on the part of white journalists.

There will be no progression in this country if people like Malema keep pulling out the race card. Racism,  especially because of its sensitive nature in this country, needs to be treated like other criminal activities – the individual must be presumed innocent until proven guilty. We can’t keep publicly denouncing each other as racists without any sort of judicial enquiry. It creates and stirs up the wrong emotions amongst our people. So where Zapiro was out of line in terms of tact and provoking unhelpful emotive responses towards the ANC and its partners, Malema, to my mind, is equally out of line in appealing to the race card out of nothing more than his own speculation and opinion.

Zapiro’s Jacob Zuma Cartoon

What ought a Christian to make of Zapiro’s latest offering of political satire. It looks pretty over the top even though many of us might agree with the sentiments he’s trying to portray. I guess he could have been a bit more careful. Jacob Zuma was acquitted of rape charges and so Zapiro should be careful of undermining the very judicial system he’s suggesting that Zuma and co. are raping. Some people have commented that the woman in the cartoon is white whilst the rest are all blacks – I’m not sure if I can see that it – let’s not turn this into a race issue again because I don’t think that’s Zapiro’s line given contributions he made to the struggle during apartheid.

You can read more here (for) and here (against). And you can see the cartoon, with commentary, here.