Zuma vs the Spear

In the sound and fury that has accompanied the decision by President Jacob Zuma and the ANC to take the Goodman Gallery to court for displaying Brett Murray painting of Zuma with his genitals exposed, I say Zuma brought this upon himself: the past seven years have been defined by his flaunting of his sexuality in the guise of nebulous precepts of "African culture".


To many people Murray’s painting is an assault on blackness and that “whiteness" still has the upper hand and that it continues to dictate and defile black people in South Africa today.

Did the failure to recognise the deep wounds of our past make us miss a moment in which we could have defused The Spear issue?

Could Zuma, in his anger and his shame, have decided to let the matter go - or was his and his advisers' anger so overwhelming they decided to go ahead?

Could Murray have, before raising his brush, wondered about the hurt that we all still carry inside us?

Could City Press have done justice by not publishing the already painting that was public knowledge or rather go with the masses by saying that the artist ought to be arrested for the violation of human right to dignity?

These are painful matters however, remains the fact that we are a constitutional democracy. We have a president who is deeply flawed at various levels, and that rights and responsibilities are entrenched in our constitution.
These rights and responsibilities will not be tested by normalcy. It is when Murray comes along, uninvited and unwanted, that we have to stand up and contest this space.

With these bags of pain by my side and by the sides of the President’s family and the ANC, I return to our constitution and its Bill of Rights.

We wrote this constitution. We adopted it with Thabo Mbeki's majestic "I Am An African" speech ringing in our ears and hearts. We brag about this very constitution every day.

For us to enjoy all these and to continue to enjoy them, we have to acknowledge that this same constitution will allow things that pain and kick us to the core.

I feel pain, but the painting must stay up, and newspapers must be able to report about it without being boycotted and burnt.