Political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, works at his home in Cape Town. AFP PHOTO / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN
Cartoonist Jonathan “Zapiro” Shapiro, who earlier this year faced controversy for once again using rape as a metaphor in a cartoon, has aimed his quill at Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and how he is supposedly being used as a lubricant to “screw” the country.
The daily cartoon, publisher by Daily Maverick, features a big surgical glove with a bit of Vaseline on the tip of the pointing finger, while the Vaseline container has Gigaba’s face as the cap with the packaging declaring “Gigaba Vaseline”, which is good at “Lubricating state deals”.
Among other properties of this Vaseline, it “eases Treasury entry!”, works to help with “Back entry for fronts” and “Oils interdepartmental penetration”, but it has the unfortunate side-effect of “Leaks”.
As a final joke, it’s labelled a “Zupta product”.
The cartoon is a clear reference to the allegation that Gigaba was made finance minister by President Jacob Zuma in place of Pravin Gordhan earlier this year in order to facilitate greater state capture by the Gupta family through their association with Zuma.
Gigaba has since been implicated in a number of exposés, and also shows up in several of the leaked emails dubbed the #GuptaLeaks in which he allegedly facilitated benefits, across all the departments he has run, to aid the controversial family from India.
Zapiro has previously drawn cartoons showing Zuma about to rape Lady Justice and South Africa, which he was heavily criticised for. His critics felt that using rape as a metaphor was insensitive in a country with such a high number of rape cases.
Zapiro explained that he had intended to shock in order to provoke thought and debate, but was not targeting the victims of rape or trying to trigger negative emotions other than horror at Zuma’s leadership.
This latest cartoon, however, shows that Zapiro continues to “flirt” with sexual metaphor. The cartoon could even still be playing with the idea of rape, though in this case Zapiro is sneaking this suggestion in “through the back door”.