Pieter-Dirk Uys, Satirist

HARDtalk celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a repeat of one of its classic interviews. In this interview from 2016, Stephen Sackur talks to South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys.

Leaders who routinely abuse their power cannot stand to be laughed at and satire is a potent political weapon. That is a truth Pieter-Dirk Uys has exploited for 40 years. He styles himself as 'the most famous white woman in South Africa', thanks to his alter ego Auntie Evita, a character he created to poke fun at the white Afrikaner establishment during the apartheid era and which he now uses to lampoon Jacob Zuma and the ANC.

Are there dangers in playing South Africa's recent history for laughs?