THERESA TAYLOR, SHAIN GERMANER and KRISTEN van SCHIE
The two men – one in the taxi industry and the other believed to be an art lecturer – arrested for defacing the controversial portrait of Jacob Zuma were apparently acting separately.
In a brazen gesture at the Goodman Gallery in Joburg yesterday, and in front of a crew from e.tv’s 3rd Degree programme, the two men used red and black paint to destroy The Spear, a painting by Cape Town artist Brett Murray.
Footage flighted on e.tv showed a man painting a red cross over the depiction of Zuma’s genitals, then another over his face.
The second man then stepped forward to spread large globs of black paint across and down the portrait with his fingers.
An e.tv reporter, Iman Rapetti, who was in the gallery filming at the time of the defacing, said she saw a man shuffling along, looking slightly suspicious.
She thought he simply wanted to get a better view of the painting or was part of an art installation.
But when the man whipped out red paint and brush, and drew a big red cross over Zuma’s genitalia, she realised something was wrong.
“I apprehended him and said, ‘What are you doing, what are you doing?’ Everyone started looking at me like I’m crazy,” she said.
Soon after the men – aged 58 and 25 – were arrested and charged with malicious damage to property, a third man arrived at the gallery and spray-painted the letters “RES”, before he too was arrested and taken to the Rosebank police station.
National police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo confirmed that the two men caught on camera in the gallery were aged 58 and 25, but their names have not been confirmed.
“It was a coincidence that they came at the same time, with the same intention, it seems,” said the 25-year-old’s attorney, Kish Naidoo, adding he believed the two did not know each other.
Naidoo said they would open a case of assault against the Goodman Gallery because of his client being body-slammed by security.
He said his client was a young man who was involved in the taxi industry in Limpopo and had an interest in art.
Friends of the man, one of whom is an artist, gathered at the station to await his release.
He was released on R1 000 bail last night and will appear in court tomorrow.
The 58-year-old man’s attorney, Xolani Mofokeng, said they were hoping to secure his release last night.
It was unclear what the third man would be charged with at the time of going to press. The three were due to appear in the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court today.
After the incident, the gallery said the painting had been removed from the premises “to a safe location pending the (outcome of the) court case”.
A later statement indicated that the Goodman Gallery would be temporarily closed to protect itself, its staff and visitors following “numerous threats of intimidation”.
“The painting has generated a debate that clearly engages with important legal and constitutional issues,” gallery owner Liza Essers said.
“This is over and above questions of political power, which formed part of its original dialogue.
“The extent of the rage has astonished me and upset me very much.
“I never imagined that this debate would transform into harmful physical action.”
Meanwhile, the Young Communist League of SA endorsed the defacing of The Spear and has offered to help foot the bill if the two suspects need legal assistance.
Earlier this week, the league announced it would be marching on the Constitutional Court tomorrow, then to the Goodman Gallery to destroy the piece.
But national secretary Buti Manamela said the league could not take credit for the actions of those who vandalised the art work yesterday.
Manamela said it would be up to the courts to decide if what the two men had done was vandalism, but in the eyes of the league it was an act of justice that helped to redeem the dignity of the president.
“(The artist Brett Murray) has vandalised the dignity of the president,” said Manamela, and the (vandals) should be rewarded for their deeds.
“This is people’s justice.”
Manamela also compared The Spear to an internet viral image of Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, nude and photoshopped.
Regardless of their political affiliation, Manamela said, the league felt no state or elected official should be mocked in such a way.
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