Unfortunately, this is a "see it to believe it" kind of moment. There is very little I can do to translate the beauty of these "emotional engineers" as they call themselves. The Handspring Puppet Company is most renowned for it's creation the puppets for War Horse and the way they have designed an entirely new way of producing these surreal puppets.

I think what really had me entranced in these creations was the sheer amount of emotions that these puppeteers could elicit out of what is simply a creature made of wood, steel and string. The emotions were so detailed, even right down to each ear moving separately, that I even saw audience members tense up in previews when the horse was caught in barbed wire and was in pain. Absolutely beautiful!

Following these puppet masters was another kind of puppetry that has become somewhat of a household name in South Africa even though they haven't graced many stages or even television for that matter. I'm talking about the controversial ZA NEW and I was lucky enough to see a preview of their second season.

Having been snubbed by the SABC, editorial cartoonist Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro) and French producer Thierry Cassuto decided that their show ZA News, a mock news cast featuring high profile puppet faces such as Nelson Mandela, Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille, would find a way into the lives of people. Thanks to the backing by Kalula and Mail&Guardian, ZA New launched online and since then it has garnered a large following.

The new season, broadcast daily online and now finally being broadcast on DSTV Channel 412, will have a host of new characters such as Eugene Terre'Blanche, Zuma's psychiatrist and Carlos Parreira. From the snippets that they showed at the launch, I feel this season is going to rack up a number of controversy points - but then again, if we can't laugh at ourselves then I feel we have considerably bigger problems.

Drop by the ZA News website to get the latest episode at www.zanews.co.za or is you have DSTV, you can go to channel 412 for a broadcast at 9:55pm or a repeat at 7:55am.