Johannesburg - Jonathan Shapiro, popularly known as Zapiro, has again been recognised for his work after he was voted the second best cartoonist in the world.
But as South Africa’s most popular cartoonist basks in his fame, some aren't impressed with his artworks – among them Eusebius McKaiser.
The political and social analyst had a debate scheduled between himself and Zapiro on Tuesday, which the cartoonist cancelled, even though he had proposed it.
This has left McKaiser displeased.
“There is something distasteful about the scenario in which Zapiro is chilling in Cape Town, and we take time off to make sense of the impact of his artistic choices on us,” McKaiser said on Monday.
The debate was to be based on Zapiro’s cartoon in The Times newspaper, in which National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams is depicted as a dancing organ grinder’s monkey.
On his Facebook page on Monday, Zapiro wrote: “In the two weeks since my controversial cartoon appeared in The Times, I have listened to and reflected on opinions from all quarters.
"So much has been written and there have been so many interviews that I have begun to question what more the public dialogue scheduled for Tuesday June 7 can contribute.
“I think it better to withdraw from the dialogue and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to people who had arranged to attend the event and to those involved in organising it.”
McKaiser wasn't pleased with the cartoonist's decision, and responded to it with a wordy Facebook post.
“Zapiro apparently doesn’t think the criticism he received was anything more than a temporary storm in a Twitter teacup. I think he is wrong to judge the very genuine and substantive engagement with his work as that fleeting and thin. And that’s frankly an indictment on him.”
He added: “I’d also have thought that if he regarded the criticism as mere social media posturing, then there should not be any trepidation about a conversation in which you can explain in part why the criticism isn’t salient.”
McKaiser also apologised to anyone who may have been looking forward to the event.
Zapiro was announced as the world’s second best cartoonist by Top Teny, a US magazine that lists the top 10 things around the world. He was runner-up to US cartoonist Berkeley Breathed.