It all began in 1997 when producer Thierry Cassuto and cartoonist award-winning cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) decided to produce their first puppet of former South African president Nelson Mandela. ‘Madiba’ then featured in a two-minute clip along with guest-starring footage of puppets from the UK’s hit satirical show Spitting Image (which ran between 1984 and 1996) and Les Guignols (the hugely popular French version running since 1988) This first rudimentary ZANEWS video created with the assistance of Jeffrey Fineberg, of the original Spitting Image team. Fineberg helped with the complex latex process. South African puppet specialist, Gary Friedman, manipulated the puppet while Jonni Cohen directed the clip