Zapiro is consistently good and there is no better way of reminding yourself of the events that have bedeviled or – in very rare cases – enlightened the past year than by buying his cartoon annual, showing the work that appeared in The Sunday Times, the Times and the Mail & Guardian.

When Jacob Zuma became president of South Africa Zapiro, one of his most vociferous critics, did not tone back as so many others did: his only concession was that Zuma’s trademark cranial shower attachment – in homage to the infamous shower he took to avoid contacting Aids after allegedly raping an HIV positive woman who was a guest in his house – was detached.

It became a barometer of Zapiro’s – and by extension the public’s – opinion of Zuma performance and reaction to certain situations. If he behaved in a presidential fashion, the shower rose some way above his head, if his behaviour was dodgy it sank until it hovered, like a sword of Damocles, just above his shiny bald pate.

Although Zapiro is still being sued by Zuma over last year’s rape of Justice Cartoon, none of this year’s batch has been – as far as I am aware – offensive enough to result in legal action, but that is not to say they are not offensive. Many of them are, in the extreme.

Africa will be protected from Aids only when Pope Benedict is himself encased in a condom, the Israeli’s continue to bomb schools and hospitals in Gaza, Julius Malema – while not depicted as a tantrumming toddler in a nappy – is a male chavenist pig [literally] in a leather jacket and Helen Zille is mocked mercilessly for having had Botox injections during the run-up to the elections.

Swine ‘flu, the soccer Confederations Cup, the death of Michael Jackson, the formation of Cope, Cholera, the first post-apartheid white South African to be granted status as a political refugee plus the old faithfuls, crime and corruption, this album has it all and more. An essential addition to your library…

For a nation with such deeply joyless Calvinist roots, South Africans have a surprisingly Catholic sense of humour.

Recent international incidents, not to mention events in the personal and political life of our President, an ordained man of the cloth himself, have rendered this hat trick of humour a little out of date but no less amusing.

We can chart Jacob Zuma’s popularity by the height at which Zapiro makes the dripping shower rosette [now firmly re-attached] hover irresolutely over the Presidential dome, while poor Lady Justice still has a hard time of it.

If political satire is a little too caustic for your taste, stick to Madam and Eve: Strike while the Iron is hot presents the usual gently hilarious view of our society, featuring everyone from the prawns of District 9 to Tokyo Sexwale to old favourites like the Mielie Lady and the tokoloshes.

Finally, Sarah Britten’s third collection of South African insults: far from being a nation renowned for having honed the art of the insult until it is rapier sharp, we tend to rely on bludgeons.

But those blunt instruments have been put together by one of the funniest writers in the country, with the help of quotes by noted wits such as Andrew Donaldson, David Bullard, Barry Ronge and many others.

So if you need cheering up in the face of the ever increasing petrol price, crime rates, and brood of presidential progeny inflicted on the long-suffering tax payer, look no further. ( )