Looking Back in Zapiro

Being back in South Africa after seven years it is time to start catching up, on the society, the way of business, the political economy. Catching up on the past year is always easier in December/January. It is the time of year-end reviews and dovetails with the summer season similar to double issues in July/August in the northern hemisphere. The business dailies become anorexic and the writers eke out a few stories to tide us over. It is a good time to sneak in a qualified audit oipinion or a remote annual general meeting. One needs not really catch up on sport because those headlines come through in bite sized chunks, like the RWC 2007, Natalie du Toit at Olympics, the fumbling Bafana Bafana, or the first-ever test series win in Australia!

But what to read first? I flipped past the Financial Mail [FM] double issue, after reading the call for leadership by the editor, and the winners and losers. Yes, of course I would rather start with the sharp incisive wit of Zapiro. What better way to understand the SA psyche? As my old history teacher taught us, the political/editorial cartoonist is a brave wo/man. But with so much material, it must be a fulfilling job, although prone to recycling, with some of the craziness in the world, and in South Africa, repeating year on year [Israel/Gaza etc]. This cover [above] from Zapiro's September 2007 release of weekly cartoons refers to the SA health minister renowned for alcoholism and denial HIV/AIDS programmes. Allegedly she claimed that some vegetables potion is better than AIDS anti-retrovirals, and allegedly she bumped other liver donors so she could be operated upon sooner, faking the reason for her organ damage to hide alcoholism. Another fine Zapiro cartoon from January 2002 has a wealthy couple strolling into "Davos", reflecting the perception of hobnobbing by politicians and businesspeople at the annual WEF event in Switzerland while the poor are nowhere to be seen. That would test the humour of a few CSR, NGO and UN types I have met along the way who would be flattered to be invited...

Zapiro must have lasted as long as he has because, as his book The Mandela Files attests, he has serious credibility, and the odd endorsement from the icon Nelson Mandela himself: “Very exciting and quite accurate”. Would make a neat endorsement for one’s work, no? He is frank in interviews, and has been at the center of media freedom debate raging in SA. Zapiro was privileged to have the Mandela Foundation launch the book as part of Madiba's 90th birthday. The Mandela Files is available in the US from end April 2009, you may pre-order on Amazon. Check out the Zapiro bibliography here. Even the titles will make you smile...

I have always wondered how Zapiro managed to keep being published - his wit is cutting, and politicians have thin skins - and it turns out his Mum was active in the anti-apartheid struggle, as was he, starting out making posters for the UDF here in Cape Town and getting detained for the privilege. He also designed the poster for the End Conscription Campaign [ECC], which I remember well from high school when weighing the joys of being conscripted into an apartheid army while wanting to serve my country. Like Helen Suzman, in the rush to re-write South African history after 1994, a good few stories about ordinary people as activists have been lost along the way.

As one academic put it during a panel discussion at a Zapiro book launch late 2008, one may disagree sometimes with the Zapiro cartoon, but never with the write to publish it. The head of the ANC has taken a dim view of the September 2008 Zapiro cartoons in response to the winding Zuma rape courtcase - which became two as Zapiro responded to legal injunctions - and is suing Zapiro for ZAR7m. I wonder if Zuma becomes president in April which newspapers will be brave enough to continue printing the cartoons of the president depicted as having a shower over his head [refering to Zuma's claim that a shower washes away HIV/AIDS in court during his rape trial]. Yes, he said it.

Lounging at the Book Store
I am also delighted to find some independent bookstores, which I will support regularly. FM just covered the small but strong segment of independents in Small Bookshop Miracles. On Sunday we browsed The Book Lounge just down the mountain at the top end of the city, open for just over a year now. The bookies running it were good quality, so we’ll be back.
I had a little time to browse the "sustainability" and "business" sections too. I did pick up Choice Not Fate, the recent Trevor Manuel biography of the the well-regarded South African Finance Minister, by Pippa Green [yes, he has a wikipaedia entry]. The title Choice Not Fate seems like something I may understand based on my own lifepath, and timely, seeing as we drove past L'Ormarins in Franschhoek the afternoon Mr Manuel was marrying his longtime girlfriend and financial rockstar, Maria Ramos. we noticed the paparazzi at the gate [a first for me in SA]. The wealthy Rupert family owns L'Ormarins. I forecast that Mr Manuel will see in the new cabinet, then be recruited away to the World Bank or IMF or such. More about the bio later.

Private Equity in Africa
I am still catching up on how the South African context has moved relative to other emerging markets and developed markets over the past seven years, and where institutional investment is integrating environmental, social and governance factors [ESG] in 2009. In my investment consulting I am looking to cover alternative asset classes too, so I look forward what the private equity/venture capital conference has to offer on 12 Feb here [South Africa Private Equity Congress, 12th February 2009, Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town] to move forward my work in private equity in Africa for 2009. Perhaps I may learn more about the IFC work in sustainability in PE [the IFC called for money managers for a small US$50m PE fund in 8 low-income countires back in November 2008], and perhaps connect with Steve Beck (former CEO of Geneva Global) who has started an Africa social PE fund and is currently fundraising for capital for Springhill Equity Partners. My hopes are high, especially looking for "Western LPs"! : "Meet and network with an increasing number of Western LPs who are looking to South Africa as a potential place of investment".