On Sunday, the daughters of president Jacob Zuma expressed their distaste after a painting of their father with his genitals hanging out appeared in the Goodman Gallery.

Gugulethu, Duduzile, Phumzile, Thuthu and Msholozi Zuma described the Brett Murray painting  as “the straw that broke the camels back …”

The sibling said they could appreciate that their father is a public figure, but that the image (which is title “The Spear“) ”infringes on his right as a human being…”

Writing on behalf of their family, the Zuma sisters told the Sunday World that the work undermines their father’s ”dignity and destroy his true character and stature as a man, a father, a leader of the ANC and South African society at large”.

“Only animals walk around naked, not people, and this depiction clearly indicates the artist [Brett Murray] and his supporters see not only the President, but black people as such.

“The painting is … the straw that broke the camel’s back in this notion that a black man who is associated with African culture and traditions and who does not fit the ‘perfect’ mould of western values and beliefs is less human than the next person.”

Sources close to the President told the paper that he is  ”deeply hurt by the image, even though he did not want to get personally involved”.

The controversial patining is currently on display at Goodman Gallery in Joburg. However, the ANC have brought a legal action against the owner, Liza Essers, is a bid to have it removed. Thus far, Essers has refused.

On Friday last week, gallery spokesperson Lara Koseff said the ANC’s censorious reaction to the painting was reminiscent of the previous government.

Koseff said the president had not actually seen the work for himself but Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile had called to discuss it at length.

She said that the situation reminds her of Chinese Artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, who has received much negative attention from his government for portraying them in a critical light.

But Zuma’s daughters can’t see any parallels: “It is our view that the issue is not one of freedom of speech or artistic expression; it is about the fact that the painter does not see our father as a human being and therefore does not see it appropriate to depict him as one.

“… he is depicted in a disrespectful savage-like manner, something that can only be justified through a Eurocentric and Negrophobic lens.

“The painter would never depict his father in that manner, nor would he depict any father or man in that manner, but an African like Jacob Zuma is depicted in that way because he does not view them (sic) as his equal,” the daughters say.

They slammed Murray for  continuing ” to further entrench stereotypes and racism through this artwork”.

“To depict a man, let alone a head of state, in this manner shows that he has no respect for him or anything he represents. Those who are his defenders as well as those who are conspicuously silent on the matter are just as guilty.

“We speak out now because we feel that this character assassination of our father is undermining his dignity and the South African ideals so many sacrificed so much for.”

SA Democratic Teachers Union Sadtu also weighed in on the matter, telling the Sunday world that his organisation would join with the ANC and Cosatu in demanding the painting be  removed from “the Goodman Gallery and on the Internet with immediate effect, as we see no artistic expression in the painting but an obscene, distasteful and blatant insult to the president of South Africa, president of the ANC and family man”.

The union said “the painting has done untold damage to the president and the country’s image and dignity. Not only are President Zuma, the ANC and his family feeling humiliated, the majority of South Africans experience the same.”