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To: Jonathan Shapiro

Zapiro Must Fall

This campaign has ended.

We call on: - Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) to apologise for the hurt that his use of rape in his cartoons have caused and to remove the offensive cartoons from his website. Nando’s to reconsider their partnership with Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro).

Why is this important?

Jonathan Shapiro – better known as cartoonist, Zapiro – recently attracted attention with his cartoon which appeared on the website, the Daily Maverick, 11 April 2017. The cartoon shows a gang rape scene involving President Jacob Zuma, his cronies, and a woman draped in the South African flag. Zuma is pictured as "offering a turn" to various powerful men. There is also another woman bystander in the scene. This is not the first time that Shapiro has drawn the rape cartoon. The other cartoons appeared in 2008 (twice), 2010, 2011, and 2016. Despite widespread criticism of these cartoons at the time, Shapiro continues to use rape as his “metaphor” to make political statements.
Shapiro's 'Rape Metaphor' is insensitive for various reasons. It is potentially triggering to rape survivors and their loved ones and it is apparent that Shapiro is disconnected from the trauma of rape. It is never okay to use rape in a humorous context and call it art. South Africa has a high incidence rate of rape and to be exposed to images of rape forces women to relive their trauma. As a country, we have lost so many young girls who were raped and murdered and Shapiro has no right to place a violated black woman's body as central to his critique of Zuma. Shapiro is a middle class white man, who enjoys a lot of privileges and has never lived and experienced life in townships. While rape happens across race and class, gross inequality renders women who live in poverty more vulnerable to rape. Shapiro’s cartoons and his ignoring calls to discontinue the use of rape depiction, exposes a racist white privileged male chauvinist mindset. He was a cartoonist under apartheid, but never showed any apartheid leaders as rapists. His cartoons, however, continue to stereotype black men as rapists.
Shapiro uses his talent, honed by privilege, to create wealth and fame for himself. Known world over, he has free access to any media platform. His right to express himself is always protected, no matter the people hurt by this.

Updates

2017-04-21 20:26:23 +0200

10 signatures reached