Recently Al Jazeera English’s media review show, Listening Post, did a breathless profile of South African cartoonist Zapiro and his satirical TV show, ZANEWS.  The insert focused on Zapiro’s outsize influence. The country’s president, Jacob Zuma, is suing Zapiro for libel for how he is portrayed in one of Zapiror’s cartoons.  But it now appears Zapiro’s reputation can’t even save the show. The producers have had to halt production on the fourth season of ZANEWS because sponsors aren’t coming forward. See here for a report.

I found it interesting for what it might say about viewers, advertisers and satire/free speech in South Africa.

We suspect the reasons why authorities at the country’s “public broadcaster,” the SABC won’t be airing the series soon. Many critics accuse the SABC of not carrying any material that are critical of the current government. According to media reports the SABC also wanted editorial control, but the producers resisted. But neither ETV, the only private terresterial broadcaster, as well as the cable/satellite provider M-Net/Multichoice–neither very close to the ANC government–wants to broadcast the series.  They both rejected it. Instead the show’s episodes are posted on Youtube channel and on a mobi site, zanews.co.za.

In contrast to the SABC, it is more difficult to explain the motives of M-Net and ETV or that of advertisers. Does this mean that South African audiences, political representatives and its business are united in their unreadiness for sharp, popular satire unless the satirist wears a dress? Does ZANEWS cut too close to the bone? Or could it be that ZANEWS’s puppets are not that funny?  Talk to me.

Anyway, it would be a pity if it would go under. (Already the sometimes funny South African online satirical site, Hayibo, folded last year.)  I stand under correction, but I know of only other TV show like ZANEWS on the continent of its type: the Kenyan show, The XYZ Show. (There’s also the hilarious puppet-less “Bulls-Eye” on NTV Kenya which is funny even if you know little of the local context. Bulls-Eye, however, is like a long editorial with moving images)

Further Reading

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.

Djinns in Berlin

At the 13th Berlin Biennale, works from Zambia and beyond summon unseen forces to ask whether solidarity can withstand the gaze of surveillance.

Colonize then, deport now

Trump’s deportation regime revives a colonial blueprint first drafted by the American Colonization Society, when Black lives were exiled to Africa to safeguard a white republic.