Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
President’s scrawl reveals his hand, says examiner
CHILDISH, impatient, suffering from an inferiority complex and lacking in leadership skills.
That was the response of handwriting expert Yossi Vissoker when he was presented with a scrawled script of President Jacob Zuma’s handwriting yesterday.
Vissoker, who is a forensic and document examiner, wasn’t told who wrote the text before he gave his analysis. He said he thought the untidy scrawl was done in a plane or moving car.
He was told only the person’s age and gender.
“The writer may have been under the influence of alcohol or medication. His age plays no part in his writing because he does not have shaky hands,” said Vissoker, of what turned out to be a sentence penned by Zuma in a visitors’ book during his visit to Kenya.
The handwriting picture was posted on Twitter on Monday, and later deleted. But fast fingers managed to take screenshots before it vanished from Twitter.
“If the person wrote the note on a table, I am a little worried because then something is not right,” said Vissoker.
“The handwriting shows that the person is childish, moody, can’t concentrate or stay focused, and is not able to distinguish between right and wrong,” the expert said.
Vissoker added he could detect charm in the writer, and the ability to recruit people to his side. “But it is to buy the people, not lead them,” he said.
The writer was possibly a comedian who needed an audience but they didn’t laugh at his jokes. He felt inferior to his peers, and would never make a businessman.
Vissoker added that the writer was afraid to take decisions.
“But when he does take them, because he is stubborn, he sticks to them, even if they are not correct.”
Vissoker has practised handwriting and drawing analysis for more than 35 years. He is certified by the American Board of Forensic Examiners as a forensic examiner, behaviour profiler and document examiner.
rabbie.serumula@inl.co.za