A PAINTING that depicts a dead Nelson Mandela undergoing an autopsy has provoked outrage in South Africa with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party condemning the piece as racist and an act of witchcraft.

The painting by local artist Yuill Damaso depicts South Africa's first black president's dead body on an operating table, undergoing an autopsy as prominent South African political figures look on.

The work is on display in an upmarket Johannesburg shopping centre.

Damaso insisted he meant no disrespect to the hero of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle.

"It (the painting) shows Mandela's flesh and bones, which shows that he was a man, just like every one of us," the artist was quoted as saying.

"He achieved great things by working hard, and he has so much influence on the country and the world, but the painting shows that he is just an ordinary man."

However, the ANC called the painting "racist" and criticised the artist for depicting Mandela as dead, saying this was considered an act of witchcraft in African society.

"The ANC is appalled and strongly condemns in the strongest possible terms the 'Dead Mandela' painting," the party said in a statement.

"It is in bad taste, disrespectful, and it is an insult and an affront to values of our society."

The ANC also lashed out at the Mail and Guardian newspaper for publishing the picture on the front page of its Saturday issue, describing the decision as "gutter journalism and soul-less sensationalism".

The party's statement said the piece violated Mandela's dignity by "stripping him naked in the glare of curious onlookers, some of whom have seen their apartheid ideals die before them".

But the newspaper said it did not mean to draw attention to the “literal death” of Mandela.

"It should not be seen as a reflection on or anticipation of the literal death of Madiba as a person, but as an enquiry into the state of the nation and its iconography.

“We believed there was a story to report, and that to do so without reproducing the image made no sense under the circumstances," the paper’s deputy editor Rapule Tabane argued.

The painting, a modern take on Rembrandt's 17th-century work The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, shows Mandela lying on an autopsy table as the late Nkosi Johnson, a child AIDS activist who died at 12, cuts into his flesh.

By Staff reporter and agencies