Portraits of a president

Joseph reports South African President Jacob Zuma doesn't like the way artists depict him and with an election in a few months' time, artists and the ANC are at loggersheads. In the past three years, South African art has been at the center of a heated public debate around censorship, dignity and what's "appropriate" when it comes to depicting President Zuma. Zuma does not enjoy a comfortable relationship with art or satire. In 2010, a year into his presidency, it was revealed that he was suing the Avusa Media group, the cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro--known by his pen name, Zapiro--and the former editor-in-chief of the country's biggest weekly newspaper, the Sunday Times, Mondli Makhanya, for a total of five million rands. Shapiro had drawn a cartoon depicting Zuma unbuckling his trousers while his political allies held down a blindfolded and obviously traumatized Lady Justice.