Lightbulb moments | Summer School

LIGHTBULB MOMENTS

Zapiro, editorial cartoonist

Monday 22 January  7.00 pm  COURSE FEES R110; Staff and students R55

Waking up, hearing the news, and exploding with moral outrage may not be everyone’s idea of a good day but it’s a good day for a cartoonist – cartoonists are driven by moral outrage. In this talk, Zapiro opens his satirical toolbox containing irony, pathos, shock, humour and, above all, surprise. He gives some insight into how he takes the viewer’s eye for a walk that ends with the unexpected. And how sometimes the way a cartoon is received is another surprise – even to the cartoonist – and becomes a story in itself.

Recommended reading

Zapiro. 2009. The Mandela Files. Cape Town: Double Storey Books. Zapiro with Mike Wills. 2014. Democrazy. Cape Town: Jacana Media.

Zapiro with Mike Wills. 2018. WTF—Capturing Zuma—A Cartoonist’s Tale. Cape Town: Jacana Media.

TO BOOK:

https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1534473614

ZAPIRO (aka Jonathan Shapiro) is South Africa’s best-known and most-awarded cartoonist. His career began in the late 1980s and is today recognised nationally and internationally as an influential social commentator through his political cartooning. He works as the editorial cartoonist for Daily Maverick. Previously he was editorial cartoonist for the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian, The Times, the Sowetan and for Independent Newspapers. He has published 27 best-selling annuals as well as 4 special collections. Resulting from hard-hitting cartoons about President Jacob Zuma, he has twice been sued by Zuma for defamation. At the end of 2012, Zuma dropped one of the lawsuits (a R5 million claim over the 2008 Lady Justice cartoon). In May 2013, Zuma dropped the earlier R10 million lawsuit from 2006.

Zapiro has held solo cartoon exhibitions internationally and many in South Africa. He has won numerous international and SA awards. In 2005 the Prince Claus Fund of the Netherlands awarded him the Principal Prince Claus Award. Most recently in 2019 he was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the order of Arts and Letters) by the President of the French Republic. Among his many accolades, he also has two honorary doctorates in Law and in Literature.