Presidency challenges Zapiro to a debate

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Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, who extended the invitation to Shapiro, had said a debate would help "create an environment of dialogue rather than confrontation", the Star reported.

On Monday, the suit against Shapiro and the Sunday Times over the "Lady Justice" cartoon was formally withdrawn.

Maharaj said: "Let's look at [the cartoon] through the multicultural lens of South Africa... in an atmosphere where we can listen to each other and stop pretending that any one individual has the infallible answers to all our problems."

He had labelled Shapiro's cartoon racist, and had said it was informed by "ingrained prejudices" about African male sexuality.

Shapiro told the newspaper he considered this a deliberate "red herring", but found the idea of a public debate intriguing.

"I'm never one to shy away from debate, but in this context we have won a total victory (ie the withdrawal of charges) and they're trying to score points now."

Charges were laid against Shapiro and the Sunday Times in 2008 after it published the cartoon depicting Zuma loosening his trousers and apparently about to rape "Lady Justice".

Zuma initially wanted R5 million, but the amount was later reduced to R4 million. He subsequently dropped the charge of impairment of dignity and further reduced the amount to R100,000 for defamation and an unconditional apology, before dropping the case entirely.
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Zapiro, with his sharp mind will kick butt, of course not that of JZ because he won't do it.
 
Can we say two-faced much?

he won't debate Zille because he knows she will embarrass him!
but he will debate Shapiro because he has already embarrassed him! :D

(So all we have to do is to get Helen to draw some crude Pictures of JZ for the newspapers and then he will debate her!) :D
 
There is no point in debating the issue, Zuma lost and Zapiro won. If they feel so strongly about the issue they should have gone to court.

All this is is an attempt to obfuscate the issue and spray some air freshener to mop up the stink over a failed attempt to sue Zapiro, with the intention of garnering some credibility to support the Presidents poor (non starter) law suite and decision making process.

Why debate that?

edit: and it wont be JZ debating, it would be Mac, who is quite frankly bankrupt in the integrity department considering the accusations he still has to answer for, along with his spouse.
 
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Zapiro should accept, and then on the day of the debate have Zille show up instead.

Edit: Zuma, Zille, Zapiro...thats a lot of Zs
 
If anybody knows Zapiro in person please tewll him to tell zuma he would consider having a public debate with him on condition that he accepts zille's debate. Now that would be an interesting move to see if Zuma can take the heat from zille and Zapiro is basically the only person in a position right now to negotiate with Zuma to debate with Zille. Zapiro for president!
 
Garyvdh said:
Do you actually know anything about Helen Zille?
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Yeah I've heard her speak. She is a politician though (not a fan of politicians in general, all the doubletalk), and Zapiro (I've attended a couple of his talks as well) comes across as being far more sensible.
 
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