For decades, Zapiro, whose real name is Jonathan Shapiro, has been South Africa’s most celebrated and provocative political cartoonist – taking on those in power and mercilessly skewering his satirical targets, from presidents to politicians and everything and everyone in between. Director Craig Tanner’s new documentary, The Showerhead, chronicles Zapiro’s long history of using his pen as a weapon against injustice, misinformation and corruption.
From his years as an anti-apartheid activist, through to his rise in the democratic era as the chronicler of South African society — as we’ve moved from the idealism of the Mandela era, to the frictions of the Mbeki administration, and the outrage of perhaps his most famous and litigious adversary, Jacob Zuma — Zapiro has continued to exemplify the importance of freedom of expression and the vital importance of speaking truth to power.
What inspired you to make a documentary about Jonathan and his work?
Craig Tanner: Well, having seen his cartoons for years, and having thought they were wonderful, and then noting how he didn't back down when Jacob Zuma sued him and just kept at it, I thought there was a story to be told about his courage. But also told against the backdrop of South African history, which encapsulates Jonathan's own experience as an activist and his role in democratic South Africa, holding those in power to account. It seemed to have all of the ingredients, plus amazing cartoons to add to the colour of the film.
How did you feel about being the subject of a film?
Zapiro: A couple of people had come to me before Craig and said they were interested in using me as the subject for a documentary but I felt nobody had come up with a viable idea. And Craig essentially came with this notion of the shower head as the kind of thing around which to make this documentary. I thought that was powerful and directed —something that I could get passionate about.
When did the process begin
Tanner: It started off in 2016 and, at that stage, the focus was essentially on the rape of Lady Justice. Jonathan was refusing to back down and that was the nub of the film. But as matters progressed and it became a nightmare trying to finish the film because there were just more cartoons and more social and political issues that the cartoons addressed, that it was necessary just to keep going. Eventually I had a film of two and a half hours, with a load of interviews and detail. I had to strip that back and that involved dropping all of the material on encounter, all of the stuff on state capture. It’s got an arbitrary endpoint, but as you know, since the end of the film, there have been new developments.
When the shower head first made an appearance, did you have a sense of how iconic it would become?
Mondli Makhanya: It became a “folk” thing from the moment it first appeared. It was a very smart cartoon and extremely impactful. Over time, it became an institution. There came a time when Zuma became president, and there was a call for us to drop the shower head. Even within my own newsroom, people wanted us to drop the shower head. I was resistant to it. Eventually we had a discussion with Jonathan and he came up with this brilliant idea — to suspend the shower head rather than remove it all together; the more [Zuma] messes up… we bring it down, and when he does right, we can move it up again. Eventually, he did mess up and the shower head came down so hard and became a lot bigger. It hasn't gone away since.
The Film and Publications Board (FPB) has issued the film with a 16+ age restriction. What’s their reasoning for this? Do you feel this limits the ability of the film to bring its message about speaking truth to power to as many people as possible?
Tanner: We’ve got a film about freedom of expression, and the release of the film has been restricted to people 16 and over, which will have the effect that it’ll deprive schools of the opportunity to show the documentary to kids and show Jonathan’s work. More particularly, it will limit the film’s ability to raise questions about freedom of expression.
Zapiro: [The rating demonstrates] a range of misconceptions about sex and violence and rape, and a complete failure to understand the distinction between gratuitous depiction of those issues and the metaphors, which are what the cartoons use to convey complex political and social issues. Even with the rape of Justice, for example, firstly, it’s a cartoon, it’s a parallel universe, it’s not an actual depiction of a gang rape scene about to happen. Next, it’s a cartoon metaphor and so clearly supposed to be seen as metaphorical. It would be so demeaning and utterly wrong to depict an act of sexual violence and I would never do that in a cartoon.
- The Showerhead screens at 7.30pm tonight at The Bioscope at 44 Stanley Ave in Johannesburg, and will be released in cinemas later this year. For more info visit www.thebioscope.co.za
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