A leading figure in South African arts and journalism; political cartoonist, Nanda Soobben has made a significant contribution to our society by using his artistic skill to make us smile. At the same time his editorial cartoons force us to consider the profound suffering and injustices that have marked our history as a nation. Nanda Soobben is an alumnus of the Durban University Of Technology, having completed his first qualification – a Diploma in Graphic Design – at the ML Sultan Technical College.

Soobben has a rare and important gift: being able to engage his audience in a process of reflecting critically on society while making fun of our political leaders and ordinary citizens. Soobben has used his pen and ink more powerfully than the sword in bringing about change and transformation, and he has never hesitated to challenge the authorities in his personal mission to seek out and expose the truth.

He won the 2009 Vodacom Journalist of the Year in the Kwazulu-Natal Cartoon Category. Soobben is an internationally acclaimed cartoonist and has had his socio-political statements, cartoons and illustrations published in newspapers such as the Post, Independent on Saturday, Daily News and the Sunday Tribune. His cartoons are also syndicated to major international newspapers and websites.

Previous honours include three international awards in 2007 alone. These comprised of a Special United StatesCongressional Recognition Award at the World Affairs Council, an Amnesty International Award for “showing leadership through his work”.

In 2008, he was awarded a Silver Tusk by the University of Technology Convocation. In 2009 he won the Heritage Award, sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture.

Nanda Soobben’s career spans the era of the liberation struggle, and then the advent of democracy – he drew his first cartoon of Nelson Mandela when he was 22 and Mandela was still in prison. The cartoon centered on the dispute about who the country’s real president was – PW Botha of FW De Klerk? In the cartoon, Margaret Thatcher asks, “Why not Mandela?” Nelson Mandela has a collection of Soobben’s Mandela Cartoons that was presented to him as a birthday gift by movie entrepreneur Anant Singh.

The late South African academic and leading activist, Fatima Meer, wrote the following in the Preface to Soobben’s second book: “Nanda Soobben is the first cartoonist emerging from the previously disadvantaged communities of the apartheid era. His works is in itself a measure of our achievements as a democracy in the last decade”.

As a high profile “black” political cartoonist, Nanda Soobben worked throughout the years of apartheid under the watchful eye of the South African censors. His cartoons appeared in the alternative press, where he had to be very subtle to get his message across. Though he held a qualification in Graphic Design, he was unable to find a job because these were reserved as “whites only” positions. Instead, he worked as a sign writer in Durban. Finally, in 1980 he began as a cartoonist with Post Natal. Soobben has lived in Brazil and the United States and studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Soobben painted a series of watercolours for a groundbreaking exhibition called “Cato Manor – People Were Living There!”. This series of paintings told the story of forced removals and the Group Areas Act and how this impacted on the people of this once non racial part of Durban. Soobben made a presentation at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco entitled “My life as a black Political Cartoonist in Apartheid South Africa”. He also painted the mural for Eco 92 in Rio de Janeiro and a peace mural in New York, which was the subject of a documentary on ABC Television.

When he returned to South Africa after Mandela’s release he began his long – running cartoon, “The Otherside”, for The Natal Witness. In the 1990s Nanda Soobben produced cartoons for the Independent on Saturday.

South African journalist and business executive Kaizer Nyatsumba writes of Soobben: “To be counted among (apartheid’s) innumerable sins is the fact not only that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our darker hued South Africans’ innate talents lay undiscovered, but there is also ignoble fact that there are many others whose talents were not allowed to be displayed before a bigger audience and to flourish”.

In 1994 he founded the Centre for Fine Art Animation and Design in Durban.
The Centre for Fine Art, Animation and Design (CFAD) is a tertiary institution that offers training in Fine Art, Animation (2D and 3D) and Graphic Design. The CFAD was established in 1994 by world-renowned cartoonist, illustrator and journalist Nanda Soobben. Prior to the establishment of the CFAD various individuals approached Nanda Soobben with the desire to learn his skills. It was from this need in the community that the institution was born. In recognition of his contribution to South African society and for establishing this institution, Nanda Soobben received the San Francisco Leadership Award. The Centre for Fine Art, Animation and Design has developed an integrated fine art, graphic design and animation diploma that equip artists with marketable skills. In the past many fine art graduates found it difficult to secure jobs, however graduates of CFAD have found it easier to secure employment in the local printing, advertising and media industry. Several successful graduates are now employed internationally.

Nanda Soobben, Krish Moodley, Academic Head of CFAD, and a team of dedicated artists and designers have developed the institution into a leading Centre of Design excellence in Durban. Today, students from as far a field as the United States, Japan, India, Botswana and Zimbabwe are registered at the institution. As part of its commitment to quality education the institution is registered with the Department of Education, South African Qualifications Authority and the Council on Higher Education as a Private Higher Education Institution.

Students have found an enjoyable, creative and productive environment at the CFAD, where all the lecturers and support staff are established artists in their own fields. CFAD is a leader in the field of animation, where the latest technology is used to teach students how to produce traditional animation and broadcast quality animation.