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Andrew Harding
Africa correspondent
Jacob Zuma painting - have the bullies won?
Copies of the City Press paper have been set on fire in protest at The Spear
Never a dull moment.
If you've followed the raw, bigoted, bullying, petty and profound debate triggered by the depiction of President Jacob Zuma's penis in an art gallery exhibition, you'll know what an absorbing and energising cauldron of a country South Africa remains.
Where else do anger and eloquence rub shoulders so routinely?
The latest twist came on Monday when the editor of City Press - a newspaper that had published a photo of the offending picture and firmly refused to remove it despite mounting pressure - announced on a local radio station that she had changed her mind.
Ferial Haffajee noted that the "debate has become a clash" and, sounding deeply bruised by the whole experience, spoke of the need to put national reconciliation ahead of principle.
So - have the bullies got their way again, or has common sense prevailed? A bit of both, I'd say.
But above all, I'm reminded of the extent to which the stain of apartheid endures in the lives of South Africans, despite two decades of democracy.
I spent most of the 1990s in the former Soviet Union, where many people shrugged off communism like a bad dream.
Racism is a much more resilient beast.
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Comment number 14.
RantingMrP29th May 2012 - 23:17
@Martyn abrahams: What do corruption and nepotism have to do with painting a Black man with his genitals exposed and clearly exaggerated, especially given South Africa's history of dehumanising Black people? If the artist wants to protest against corruption, by all means let him - but not by casting Zuma as some sex-crazed monster with a 10-inch penis. Show some respect.
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Comment number 13.
Martyn abrahams29th May 2012 - 9:42
Democracy according to the ANC:
1) A President who was accused of rape. ruling a Government who is not allowed to be challenged, 2) A political party using hypocrisy, bully tactics and patronage in a democracy has the right to economic self gain. 3) Use apartheid as a weapon to gain support when it wains. 4) Disagreement with any of the above = you are a racist!
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Comment number 12.
Martyn abrahams29th May 2012 - 9:31
@RantingMrP
You obviously have no idea what the painting represents or have any understanding of why it was painted. If so, then obviously the nepotism & corruption that are so rife in S Africa is colored by your belief or apparent bias support and therefore lack of balanced opinion. You call it racist yet I doubt you have much to say when the ANC elite use racist language against the opposition.
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Comment number 11.
RantingMrP29th May 2012 - 4:22
The painting was in extremely poor taste. And the media outlets that have carried the picture in south Africa (as well as the gallery that exhibited it and the person who bought the painting) are all non-Black, while the president is, of course.
It's racism. Haffajee is a Muslim - would her newspaper carry cartoons of the prophet Muhammad under the same 'free speech' banner?
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Comment number 10.
Johan29th May 2012 - 2:54
It's not like the President is a prude. He has, how many children for how many wives,girlfriends?. He's obviously not ashamed to exhibit his penis, so what's the fuss?.
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Comments 5 of 14