Put on public display in 2012, it depicts the then South African President Jacob Zuma, his genitals revealed, in a standing pose reminiscent of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

[3] Murray's works in the exhibition also include modifications of ANC liberation-struggle posters and flyers from the Apartheid era, some displaying the text "Amandla, we demand Chivas, BMWs and bribes".

[5] Zuma has often been the centre of scandal and ridicule, due to his polygamous lifestyle with many wives and girlfriends,[6] and a comment he made during his 2006 rape trial that showering after sex would minimise the risk of contracting HIV.

[11] After a review and photo appeared in the City Press, Liza Essers, the owner and director of the Goodman Gallery, said that she received a telephone call from Mduduzi Mbata, special advisor to the minister of arts and culture, seeking to clarify her thoughts on the exhibition.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said of the painting, "The African National Congress is extremely disturbed and outraged by the distasteful and indecent manner in which Brett Murray and the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg is displaying the person of comrade President Jacob Zuma".

[15] In response to the impending legal action, gallery spokesperson Lara Koseff said its lawyers had responded that it would stay until the show was over, citing censorship concerns as central to the decision to allow the exhibition to continue.

[26] After City Press repeatedly refused to remove an image of the painting from their website, the ANC called upon its members and sympathisers to boycott placing advertising in, and buying of, the weekly paper.

A statement released by the ANC said: "Their refusal to remove this portrait from their website and their controlled social media is a clear indication that this newspaper does not belong to our shared democratic dispensation and values."

[36]: 3 [38][39] During the classification proceedings, there were allegations that the FPB was acting outside its statutory remit,[41] and that specific members had made statements or asked questions implying that it was entitled to censor political opinions and restrict freedom of the press.

[36]: 5 [39][44][45] In its press statement announcing the classification, the FPB referred at length to its statutory authority and responsibilities, in particular its role in "promoting the safety of children";[36]: 1  and explicitly denied that it had been influenced by political figures or had acted beyond its jurisdiction, saying that "We believe that reports to the contrary have been specifically designed to defame the Film and Publication Board, question its integrity, competence, credibility as well as formulate as a reality the false notion that the state seeks to silence and censor the media by all means possible and with total disregard for accepted procedures and principles".

[36]: 3  In reply to questions, FPB chief operations officer Mmapula Fisha said that The Spear differed from other works of art containing nudity, and merited the 16N classification, because "The artwork has forced society to revisit its painful history".