‘I see Walter Sisulu’ - Lvovo weighs in on Rasta’s George Bizos painting

18 September 2020 - 12:00
By kyle zeeman AND Kyle Zeeman
Rasta painted a portrait of late human rights advocate George Bizos.
Image: Rasta's Twitter Rasta painted a portrait of late human rights advocate George Bizos.

Controversial funeral painter Lebani “Rasta” Sirenje has again sparked anger and calls for someone to take away his brushes, after unveiling a portrait of late human rights advocate George Bizos.

Bizos, who famously represented Nelson Mandela in the historic Rivonia trial, died last week at home of natural causes. A funeral service was held for the activist on Thursday at the Hellenic Cultural Centre in Johannesburg.

As friends and admirers flooded social media with messages of condolences and tributes, Rasta posted a portrait he had done of Bizos.

There were mixed reactions to the painting, with many slamming Rasta for being “disrespectful” and labelling him an “attention seeker”.

While most agreed that the painting looked nothing like Bizos, there were several wild guesses as to who it did resemble.

Some said Morgan Freeman, others joked it looked like a “dark skinned Albert Einstein!". 

Musician Lvovo weighed in, saying it looked like apartheid struggle icon Walter Sisulu.

Still, the guesses and mocking memes kept flooding in, and soon Rasta yet again found himself on the trends list.

Here are some of the reactions: