Art sparks legal threat
The latest painting by controversial artist Ayanda Mabulu was “grotesque, inflammatory and in bad taste”, the ANC said yesterday.
The painting, titled The economy of rape, which portrays President Jacob Zuma in a sexual act with late former president Nelson Mandela, caused a stir on social media this week . “Whilst we respect Mabulu’s freedom of expression, we find his work grotesque, inflammatory and in bad taste,” the ANC said in a statement.
“No matter what message he may want to send to President Zuma and the ANC, we view his work as crossing the bounds of rationality into degradation, exploiting the craft of creative art for nefarious ends.
“More concerning is his callous abuse of our icon, the late founding president of democratic South Africa.”
The ANC added that “such vulgarity and disdain for the dignity of others” was crude, demeaning, derogatory and markedly made the point that no freedom, including the freedom of expression, was without limits.
“Accordingly, the ANC reserves its right to seek recourse through the criminal justice system, as well as the institutions set up to promote and protect the fundamental human rights of all in South Africa,” the party said.
It added: “The ANC will leave it to psychoanalysts and scholars of art to debate Mabulu’s narcissistic obsession with the phallus and human genitalia in general.”
Mabulu’s paintings have sparked heated debate around freedom of expression and respect for the rights of individuals in recent years.
He also ran into trouble last year when he painted Zuma performing a sexual act with controversial businessman Atul Gupta in the cockpit of an aeroplane.
Another of his paintings, Spear Down My Throat (The Pornography of Power), in 2015 depicted Zuma with his manhood in the throat of a woman (representing South Africa), while she was being penetrated by a hyena in a Victorian suit.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation also expressed disapproval, saying: “The foundation would like to express that it respects Mr Mabulu’s right to freedom of expression. We, however, find this painting distasteful.” – ANA
Ahim. “I’ve forgiven him. If you want to move on you have to. But it is not easy. We’re all still battling to come to terms with this,” Leandri Visser told The Citizen.
She said she was relieved at the 25-year prison sentence the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria imposed on her former husband, Stefan Visser, 29, for the murder of her mother, Pastor Elsabé van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk, 59, died at the family panel-beating business in Gezina on April 11 last year, after Visser hacked, gouged and stabbed her with a knife for no apparent reason.
She died of more than 40 wounds to her head, shoulder, chest and arms. One of the wounds in her face was so deep that it partially amputated her nose.
Visser showed no sign of emotion after he was sentenced, but his former wife hugged family, friends, the investigating team and the prosecutor. She said the family could now finally move on and try to deal with their grief.
She had known her former husband for 15 years and her mother had treated him like a son.
Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen said the gruesome and cowardly manner in which Visser had attacked a defenceless older woman in broad daylight would fill any right-thinking person with abhorrence.
Visser said in his plea explanation he had lost his temper and started stabbing Van Niekerk after she hit him with her handbag during an argument about his pending divorce and the children.
He said he was angry with his parents-in-law because of an earlier argument. But he gave a different version in a warning statement shortly after the incident, saying he had stabbed her when she walked away after an argu- ment and when he saw a neighbour taking photos, had pulled on a balaclava and gloves and continued stabbing her.
He then drove to his new girlfriend’s mother’s house, where he broke in and burnt his bloodied clothes.
The judge said Van Niekerk was a beloved wife, mother, and grandmother. Visser’s callous deed had traumatised her family.