Mind your language

The things that brings us together are far greater than the things that separate us and i hold my breath with caution,before exhaling a prophetic assertion that will haunt the entire generation of the 21st century and beyond.My motherland - South Africa is frantically preparing for a historic general election.On the 22nd of April,innocent victims of a depleted government will be casting their votes for a new president.Now fasten your seat belts and keep still as i drive you down the boulevards of the RAINBALL nation - where a barbecue is known as a braai,a motorway is called a freeway and a traffic light is called a robot.

As much as i am excited about the prospects of a better Mzansi,i am powerless and voiceless to raise alarm on the bleaching of democracy in my motherland.An incumbent president - Thabo Mbeki was spectacularly ousted from power before his term of office ran out.The African National Congress' (ruling party)kangaroo court implored that Mbeki had failed to lead the government according to the manifesto which was initially drafted by party gurus like Nelson Rolinhlanhla Mandela.Hence,to this day we are running on a make-shift aristocratic government,elected by the ruling party.Make-shift in the sense that a lot of those who sympathised with Mbeki resigned and formed an opposition party called COPE.No referendum was held to elect the current leaders - it just happened at party level.So if the people the party represents are not consulted ,whose voice is the party representing?

Politics spares no one and it's ruthless and dangerous in fragile young democracies like South Africa.Yes we gained independence from the dreadful apartheid regime.And yes we are independent but freedom is dangerous if abused.Sometimes i wonder if we had remained a Kingdom - ZULULAND.Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe called on his opposition leader Dr Joshua Nkomo to form a government of national unity in 1987.Typical Che Guevara style,the ruling Zanu(pf) swallowed the opposition,who had disbanded their army units and intergrated into the new 'government'.That's why Zimbabwe is in this shit today - they preached a one party state and it failed.In the interim,the ANC did the same like Mugabe,they dismantled the official opposition National Party by swaying its leader Marthinus Van Schalkwyk to join them.And by being offered the Minister of Tourism post ,he agreed and the opposition varnished.

Jacob Zuma who is widely expected to win the upcoming general elections recently sued Zapiro,an award winning cartoonist for millions of pounds.The cartoon depicts the woman as the justice system;the people helping the woman to be raped are members of the ANC and the guy pulling his pants down is Jacob Zuma.In essence Zapiro was humourously saying,Jacob Zuma and his accomplices are raping the justice system.Is this defamatory?In the eyes of many Yes.But then what is freedom of press?Cartoons started in the ancient Greek empire and were used for political propaganda.Of course,they were later perfected by people like William Hogarth.With the invention of lithography in 1798 ,it became appparent that it could be printed in national newspapers to represent aspects of a society through human figures.Again South Africa's fragile democracy worries me,if Journalists can not express their opinions and comments without fear of being abducted by party hardliners then there is no democracy.

So to all my varsity colleagues,if i were to do a cartoon of the queen being raped by an unidentified government official - would that be defamatory .If yes to what extent???