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Back from America where he was honoured for his courage in political cartooning, Zapiro now faces the wrath of Zuma and a R15-million lawsuit, the highest, ever, anywhere in the world, incurred by a cartoonist. Is he concerned? “It’s laughable. I’ve faced worse things at the hands of the apartheid leaders.” Leadership fired some questions across his desk to see what drives South Africa’s favourite journalist of conscience.

The day before this interview, Zapiro enthralled a packed audience at the Place of The Book, a lofty, dignified, sandstone rotunda that gives a sense of place and gravitas, but rang to peels of mass laughter as image after image went up onto the big screen. Some of the all-time classics were there: Thabo from the back window of his limo as it pulls in to parliament confronted by a petty cash street beggar: “Change? Change takes time my friend.” Funny, funny, funny beyond description. And the famous take on Manto and her beetroots and African potatoes. And the adorable hero worshipping of Nelson Mandela bending over backwards to meet Betsy Verwoerd. The loss of the Olympic bid to Athens. Enthralling stuff. Snippets of a life through which we South Africans have been privileged to live.

But for Jonathan Shapiro, the current era is laced with irony: those bitter moments of being jailed, along with other notables of the struggle, by the apartheid bosses and with hilarity recounting how, to go incognito, his wife helped him dye his hair blonde. It went badly wrong. It went bright orange! So instead of disappearing into the crowd, he stood out like a weirdo!

How do you live so close to the edge without falling in?

By consistently being true to myself; saying what I believe to be true. Seeking truth. I don’t take sides with something I believe to be wrong. I have commented on Israeli oppression of Palestinians and, because I am born Jewish, taken a lot of flak from the Jewish community. But there are no holy cows. I have put the focus on Muslims, gays, the Pope, presidents, anyone who stands up and says this is the way when to me it clearly is not.

The Americans tend to be very politically aligned, usually to the persuasion of the newspaper they serve. So when they see what comes out of South African press freedom, they are amazed at the audacity. They enjoy it and think I am rude and outrageous. Americans can’t go so far.

I love your take on the Danish cartoonist whom you branded “weapon of mass destruction”. Would you have drawn the prophet Mohammed?

On the surface of it, it’s not my calling; I don’t want to stir up dissent for the sake of it, but to comment on issues. This was an issue that was rich in its ramifications; of why the images were published and the time it took to stir up a concerted response. But having said no, I defend the right to publish. I responded with a comment that all religions are a dangerous minefield where I put religious leaders’ heads in the sand topped with detonators ready to explode.

Did you expect white hot responses from the Zuma cartoons?

People generally don’t sue cartoonists. It’s a pretty dead-end thing to do. And it’s a silly ploy to pursue. It brings all the arguments back into the public spotlight and even adds more fuel to the fire for cartoonists to feed off.

R15 million. Are you worried?

No.

Your early work, PW’s smoking gun finger, is heavily influenced by English cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Was he your benchmark?

I have so many artists that I admire. Scarfe, Ralph Steadman, Derek Bauer. Steinberg, Al Hirsh, Bill Waterson. These are great illustrators. They make their lines talk. But the editorial commentators are rare. There are only about five I connect with: Oliphant, Steve Bell, Mike Lukowich, Plantu Chapatte and Garry Trudeau.

Madiba is an avid fan. So are Desmond Tutu and Trevor Manuel. In fact, the mark of newsworthiness, good or bad, is whether it caught the mind of Zapiro. How do you arrive at your topic?

I read a lot. Magazines. Newspapers. I feel the issues and the voice of the people. I don’t get much from TV. It starts with hard facts; a very cerebral analysis. The left brain does most of the work and I then hope the right brain kicks in. When it does, that’s magic.

The “Lemon” was a clear example of what I mean. I had come up with a chart showing Manto’s face in a vegetable line-up alongside beetroot, African potato, garlic and lemon headed by a label “which one is not a vegetable?” It appealed to me. I liked the finished result. Then at the eleventh hour as I was about to send it off to print, my right brain kicked in and I added the baseline: “The Lemon is not a vegetable,” which kicked the humour into a better place.

Do you have a mentor or someone with whom you can bounce off ideas?

No. It’s not like a cartoon strip that can work as a team – a writer, an illustrator, a business manager. I’m on my own. No parachutes. Sometimes someone will suggest a topic or an idea that will get me started. But the response is ruthless. I have to be true to myself and cannot be diplomatic. In cartoons, I don’t apologise. In real life, I do.

Do you syndicate?

South Africa does not have the same publishing landscape as America where every small city has a local press. Syndications across the country can work for the funnies, but political comment even there tends to be about local issues. They think local first then national. I do have three regular client bases in the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times and the Independent Newspapers (who concurrently publish in the Cape Times, The Star Pretoria News and The Mercury). They are all fresh submissions. So because of the spread, I tend to think national (not local). Then international. I find it’s best when I deal with stories close at hand where I have intimate knowledge of the issues, the debates, the personalities.

Do you have a hero?

Other than Madiba?

Yes, I guess we can all say “other than Nelson Mandela”.

Art Spiegelman, the genius cartoonist in New York who taught me so much 20 years ago.

I scribbled a portrait of Zapiro as he talked, then time was up. No time to do one of me.
Royston Lamond

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