ZAPIRO (aka Jonathan Shapiro) is South Africa’s best-known and most-awarded cartoonist. His career began in the late 1980s and is today recognised nationally and internationally as an influential social commentator through his political cartooning. He works as the editorial cartoonist for Daily Maverick. Previously he was editorial cartoonist for the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian, The Times, the Sowetan and for Independent Newspapers. He has published 27 best-selling annuals as well as 4 special collections The Mandela Files, VuvuzelaNation, Democrazy and WTF: Capturing Zuma—A Cartoonist’s Tale. Resulting from hard-hitting cartoons about President Jacob Zuma, he has twice been sued by Zuma for defamation. At the end of 2012, Zuma dropped one of the lawsuits (a R5 million claim over the 2008 Lady Justice cartoon). In May 2013, Zuma dropped the earlier R10 million lawsuit from 2006.
Zapiro has held solo cartoon exhibitions internationally and many in South Africa. He has won numerous international and SA awards and was voted by magazines Jeune Afrique, New Africa and Credit Suisse as one of the most influential people in Africa. In 2005 the Prince Claus Fund of the Netherlands awarded him the Principal Prince Claus Award. Most recently in 2019 he was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the order of Arts and Letters) by the President of the French Republic. Among his many accolades, he also has two honorary doctorates in Law and in Literature