South Africa got rid of a corrupt, disastrous leader called Jacob Zuma (my caricature of Zuma - here) and a great deal of hope was placed on the new president, Cyril Ramaphoza.
Ramaphoza served on the board of directors of Lonmin, a London based platinum producer. Lonmin's flagship operation, Marikana , is near Brits in South Africa's North West Province.
On 15 August 2012 Ramaphoza called for action against a miners' strike at Marikana, a decision he later regretted.
On the afternoon of 16 August, The police opened fire with assault rifles on a group of strikers. Within minutes 34 miners were killed, and at least 78 were wounded. See the Wikipedia report here
Soon after his presidency, the South African cabinet, under pressure from Julius Malema and the EFF (see my caricature of Malema), ammended the South African constitution to include expropriation of land without compensation. Although placating the populace that this will be done so that the already fragile South African economy will not suffer, the implications are far-reaching and investors are nervous.
The caricature:
Step 1
I worked on the structure of the head to show angle and form here. This served as a guideline to later add detail and features.
Step 2
Detail added and a body formed to help place my thoughts into the sketch. I wanted to convey the "new broom sweeps clean" image. When I considered that Ramaphoza is not, seemingly, living up to the original excitement of his election, I decided to scratch out "NEW" and insert "RECYCLED". We'll see if this proves to be prophetic!
*Step 3
I finished the head detail to be added to the body later.
Step 4
Head and body structure. I had a thought of placing Malema on his pack, but the implications could make for interpretations that were not worth explaining away!
I hope you enjoy this post and please comment and offer suggestions.