Court action over JZ private parts portrait

THE ANC has called for the removal of a portrait in which President Jacob Zuma is depicted with his private parts hanging out.

The painting is part of an exhibition by artist Brett Murray, currently on show at the Goodman Gallery in Parkwood, Johannesburg.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said in a statement yesterday: "We have this morning instructed our lawyers to approach the courts to compel Brett Murray and Goodman Gallery to remove the portrait from display as well as from their website and destroy all printed promotional material.

"... we remain steadfast in that the image and the dignity of our president as both president of the ANC and the Republic and as a human being has been dented by this so-called piece of art by Brett Murray ... We are also of the view that this distasteful depiction of the president has violated his individual right to dignity as contained in the Constitution of our country."

Mthembu said the ANC believed in both the freedom of expression and artistic expression but "vulgar portrait and the dismembering of the ANC logo by Brett Murray is an abuse of freedom of artistic expression and an acute violation of our Constitution, apart from being defamatory".

Titled Hail to the Thief II, Murray's exhibition parodies the role played by ANC leaders in the struggle. In a media statement following the exhibition launch last week, he said it expressed his "contempt for some members of the new regime who through corruption and guile, are effectively pissing on the graves of the struggle heroes".

Murray has since decided not to grant any interviews to the media.

His publicist Lara Koseff said he had decided to do a "media blackout" on the exhibition because of the controversy it had raised. "His feeling is that the exhibition itself must do the talking rather than him trying to interpret it to the media."