Bio
Zapiro (born 1958) is a South African political cartoonist best known for his work in newspapers such as The Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times.
Born as Jonathan Shapiro in Cape Town, Zapiro studied architecture at the University of Cape Town before switching to Graphic Design.
He was conscripted into the army in 1983, where he refused to bear arms and became active in the newly-formed United Democratic Front. His arrest under the Illegal Gatherings Act caused some consternation in the SADF and his being monitored by military intelligence while also participating in the End Conscription Campaign, and designing its logo.
His work as a cartoonist began in earnest with a wide range of political and progressive organisations. When the newspaper South began in 1987, he became its editorial cartoonist.
He was detained by security police in 1988 shortly before leaving on a Fulbright Scholarship to study media arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York. New York was an eye-opening experience where he studied under comics masters Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman.
He returned to South Africa in 1991 and with Story Circle produced educational comics including Roxy (Aids education), Tomorrow People (democracy education) and A Trolley Full of Rights (a child abuse prevention comic later used by UNICEF elsewhere in Africa).
He was editorial cartoonist for Sowetan from 1994-2005 and appeared in the Cape Argus from 1996-1997. He has been editorial cartoonist for the Mail & Guardian since 1994, the Sunday Times since 1998 and since September 2005 also appears three times a week in Cape Times, The Star, The Mercury and Pretoria News.
He has held solo cartoon exhibitions in New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and many in South Africa. Has also exhibited in numerous group shows locally and internationally.
He has been an invited participant and speaker in cartoon events in Cameroon, Botswana, Namibia, Australia, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the USA. In South Africa he has been a presenter and run workshops for a wide variety of organisations and educational institutions. He attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland 2003-2006 as one of a group of invited cartoonists.
Resulting from hard-hitting cartoons about South Africa's former deputy-president and newly-appointed South African President Jacob Zuma, he is currently being sued by Zuma for defamation.
He was one of the featured celebrities on the first season of the South African version of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? (based on the British series of the same name), which premiered on SABC2 in May 2009.