Zapiro glad shower-head man has day in court
AWARD-winning cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, aka Zapiro, said yesterday was a sentimentally important day for him as he paid tribute to his mother, Gaby Shapiro.
He also expressed joy that former president Jacob Zuma had eventually got his day in court.
The famed socio-political commentator appeared as a guest speaker at UCT’s Jameson Memorial Hall for the Faculty of Humanities graduation ceremony yesterday morning.
Gaby, who played an influential role in Shapiro’s activism during apartheid, passed away 18 years ago to the day yesterday.
He said it was significant that the day coincided with Zuma making his first court appearance to face corruption and fraud charges in Durban.
He lauded Gaby for the influence she had on him as an anti-apartheid activist. “(Yesterday) also happened to be April 6… 18 years to the day my mother passed away. She had a huge influence on me.
“She was someone who opened my eyes to the injustices around me during apartheid as I grew up. At the age of 53, she joined the United Democratic Front along with friends and myself.
“What inspired me was the egalitarian, ground-up movement that was the UDF… and later in the ANC,” he said.
The ANC later named its Rondebosch branch after his mother.
Referring to Zuma’s court case, he said: “The guy I see with a shower on his head finally appeared in court.”
He was referring to his famous drawings of Zuma with a shower head. “Even those of us who confronted the struggle have been vital against the corruption that went on for more than 15 years. In 2002, that is when the corruption that has beset Zuma and South Africa went into the public domain.
“We fought that corruption struggle for more than 15 years. I have confidence in the judiciary,” he said.
Shapiro said he had been able to find a path that he didn’t expect, having studied architecture before moving to the arts campus. “I’m really sure that many of you will do what you believe in,” he added.
He said the new dawn in the country brought by a new president, and the confidence of graduating, should give a bit of hope to the graduates.
He urged them to go into careers they loved, saying he had toiled for 10 years, living handto-mouth, before he started making money as a cartoonist.