Iman Rappetti, anchor of Morning News Today on the eNews Channel (DStv 403) was in the Goodman Gallery a few hours ago as an eNews Channel team - in a striking co-incidence which it managed to capture live on camera - captured the defacing and vandalising of the controversial painting of South Africa's president Jacob Zuma with exposed genitals by two men at the same time: one white and one black.
The eNews Channel rolled with the exclusive visuals of the bizarre incident which is set to surely makes waves on news channels around the world as the story of South Africa's apparent intolerance to freedom of speech and a growing and contentious debate about dignity and artistic expression, goes viral.
An incredulous Iman Rappetti, a senior news anchor of the 24 hour South African news channel, can be seen on camera, suddenly realising that the highly controversial portrait entitled "The Spear" is being spray-painted and destroyed. She is on camera and is witnessing in disbelief the shocking event suddenly developing first-hand - the latest chapter in the story scandalising South Africa.
"Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this?! How can you do that? Who are you?" says Iman Rapetti expressing huge surprise and disbelief just after the first white man nonchalantly starts spraying red spray paint over president Jacob Zuma's face and the exposed penis on the portrait.
Then a black man starts rubbing black paint with his hands over the middle length of the portrait. The white man walks away calmly as Iman Rapetti starts talking to the security and bystanders to tell them about the first perpetrator. "He's getting away!" Iman Rapetti says with urgency pointing to the white man off-camera.
A black security guard is seen allegedly head-butting the black alleged defacer slamming him down on the ground and rough-handling him.
Iman Rappetti, with heightened tone in her voice is heard saying: "Why are you arresting him? He's the one..." as she points to the first alleged white defacer who is off camera. Iman Rapetti is then seen talking to the first white perpetrator, asking him questions as the eNews cameras are rolling.
Upsetting Africa's presidents and powerful is not something which is tolerated on the continent and can have dangerous consequences for those individuals involved.
In December last year the fast-food chain Nando's was forced to pull its humorous TV advert. After satirising the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as one of the infered caricatures in the TV commercial, Nando's employees in Zimbabwe were threatened with bodily harm.
