name, let’s call it “Madiba” and be done. – Will Bernard, Westdene
I refer to the report regarding the proposed renaming of Pretoria to Mandela City, to be spearheaded by the New Nationalist Party, according to their representative, one Max van der Walt.
A few years ago, the Nationalist Party turned their backs on Dr Hendrik Verwoerd and, against the wishes of the residents and ratepayers, changed the name Verwoerdburg into the meaningless Centurion to please and pacify the so-called business community.
If they think to get away as easily as in the case of Verwoerdburg, they are in for a surprise.
The electorate has already dealt with them for the way they have handed power over to the African National Congress/South African Communist Party alliance, and any further treacherous conduct will not be tolerated by the residents of Pretoria. – Jan Kriel, Pretoria
Lemmer led on
It’s news to me that, as reported in last week’s Lemmer, I have sold my literary remains to the wealthy Americans, and therefore I resent a bit the implication that I somehow must be unpatriotic.
Since I have contributed to your paper for a decade, and am hardly an unfamiliar denizen of your offices, I do think you could have checked the facts with me before leading poor Lemmer on so. Please tell him the truth is quite other than he supposes: the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown, where my leftovers have mouldered this last quarter-century, is so underfunded that even its fishmoths are starving. I have removed what remains of said papers for their routine sterilisation in mampoer, a gesture which even Lemmer’s barfly compatriots will loudly endorse. – Stephen Gray, Johannesburg
Shocking contact
I am writing in response to the article “Chief spy investigates skeleton” (June 25 to July 1). The article refers to the Charlottenthal human remains assemblage that is found near the diamond mining town of Lderitz in southern Namibia. The article carries some comments that were supposedly made by “a government employed archaeologist”.
Although John Grobler’s article does not clarify which “government”, I felt it necessary that I should respond and clear the confusion that the said article has caused. There is only one archaeologist employed by the government of the Republic of Namibia. This archaeologist is based at the National Museum of Namibia’s archaeology laboratory. Grobler never contacted the museum or the archaeologist. It was, therefore, shocking to read a paragraph that quotes a government archaeologist. – Goodman Gwasira, archaeologist, National Museum of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
Hung up on hanging
In my view, Chris Morris’s report on Abdullah Ocalan (“Ocalan verdict ignites dangerous passions”, July 2 to 8) is somewhat marred by the badly expressed comment: “If Ocalan were to be hung, he could easily become a Kurdish martyr.”
I always understood that whereas pictures and dead meat are hung; live humans are hanged! – Brian Russell, Greenside
Capturing cricket
Congratulations to Neil Manthorp on an excellent article reflecting on South Africa’s loss in the World Cup cricket tournament (“Four years for the scars to heal”, June 25 to July 1).
I have always enjoyed and looked forward to his well-balanced and professional reporting on the cricket scene and this article was no exception. He has managed to accurately capture so much of what surrounds the disappointment of that semi-final match. In particular. his description and analogy of everything preparing the way and building up to this World Cup, put into words something which I had sensed but could not pinpoint or describe to date.
Well done, Neil, and here’s hoping that we continue to have the benefit of your high standard of journalism. – Cathy Gush, Grahamstown
No forgiveness
If it is to the Mpumaliar government that “to lie is political”, it is definitely to people like me in this country that “to forgive is unprincipled”.
Politicians should not push us too far. We’ve had enough and we want peace and socio- economic development, which women and the youth, in particular, have entrusted in President Thabo Mbeki’s leadership. – Hunadi, Pretoria
Forgotten fund?
Some months ago, to the usual fanfare from the government, the Job Creation Fund was launched. Trade unions, civil servants and businesses were asked for donations. Since then, silence – with the much-lauded transparency promises forgotten. How much has been subscribed and who is controlling the money? How many jobs have been created and what specific process is being used to convert the money into jobs?
I hope that it is not a convenient little fund to set up selected comrades in business. – FW Thorpe, Midrand
Rein in the madness
Last year when my assistant Ernest Maluleke was on his way home to Giyani in Gazankulu for a few days he was stopped by police at Park Station. They thought that with his cellphone he looked too prosperous to be a local. They threw him around a bit, accusing him of being a Mozambican. He eventually convinced them that he was a South African when he was able to read and translate some Afrikaans.
More recently, a friend of mine who lives in Hillbrow went down to the pavement to have his hair cut as he was getting ready to go and work. He never got to his job as he was picked up by the police on suspicion of being a foreigner (he is tall and well built, you see) and held overnight in the Hillbrow police station. He is actually a Venda and speaks several South African languages, but did not have his ID document with him when he dashed down to the pavement for a while. Why should he?
Last Sunday Ernest was again stopped by police in Yeoville. They loaded him into their vehicle (BLC269GP – JS5) because he had two cellphones on him, the one his own and the other a broken phone belonging to a friend. He was on his way back from VodaWorld where he had been to have it repaired. But they would not accept this explanation, and proclaimed his ID (which he now always carries with him) to be a forgery.
They drove around with him for some time, but would not show him their identification. While driving around they picked up some Angolans who did not have valid papers. Actually, the police at first thought they were Nigerians (“We don’t breed them that big in South Africa!”).
Meanwhile, another of our friends (a South African ethnic Swazi) was driving behind the van, determined to have Ernest released. Through his determination to cause a scene he eventually achieved this.
This sort of madness has to be reined in. Black citizens of South Africa are becoming angry about being assumed to be Mozambicans, Zimbabweans or Nigerians and being held in police cells like criminals because they do not have their ID documents with them, or the money to induce the police to release them. – Gavin Hayward, editor, Exit newspaper
Seek ye the Internet
The brilliance of Robert Kirby’s writing is equalled only by the logic behind its satire. His contrasting of Thabo Mbeki’s inaugural speech deploring crime and corruption while receiving and entertaining convicted VIP criminals (Loose cannon, June 25 to July 1) is masterly. Mbeki’s ambiguous course of action leaves one despairing for the promised “African renaissance”.
It also leads one to suggest that if Mbeki is sincere in his wish to eradicate crime (an ambition that has never been fulfilled since Cain slew Abel), he might begin foiling corruption-mongers and exercising true transparency by the use of the finest tool that the 20th century has invented for such a purpose: the Internet.
If government and municipal departments, licenced charities and all organisations handling public money were obliged to keep their daily cash book on the Internet, the corruption that “continues to rob the poor of what is theirs and to corrode the value system” would automatically be curtailed. Immediate transparency could certainly make theft by such operators as Allan Boesak far more difficult. This holy man might be able to bamboozle his followers and temporarily bluff the donors, but an instant record of cheques issued would be open to inspection by those from whom the money is received.
Taxpayers, donors and subscribers would not have to await a probe by an enterprising journalist months or years after the funds had disappeared.
Had the Internet, instead of the Lord saved Boesak from temptation Mbeki could, with impunity, have invited him to his inaugural party without inviting criticism. Technology could have averted much embarrassment.
Advantages of allowing the public to watch how its money is spent are inestimable, whereas the disadvantages of the Internet’s transparency would inconvenience only the perpetrators of corruption. Since only the wrongdoers would fear being caught in the Web, there would be no good reason for an honest person to refuse to use it. – A Webb- Trapp, Parkview
A riveting read
The local radio station for this area (north Western Cape) implied that your paper is “probably the best in South Africa” . thus I bought the June 18 to 24 edition.
All the articles kept me riveted to my seat for more than the fact that they were timeous, to the point and enlightening.
Take into consideration that I am a “Boer” inhabitant as per Ray Capel’s letter and a “non-African” as per C Edward Nisin’s letter.
Knowing that, allow me to ask your John Matshikiza what he actually means when he states in his portrayal “Farewell and hail to the chiefs”: “Africa knows who its heroes are”?
He calls, among others, Moammar Gadaffi and Yasser Arafat “heroes”, as well as “faces of hope for Africa”. Am I being boorish for thinking that somewhat tasteless?
As for JL Jackson, of Parktown North’s attack on South African banks, please, mister, we just don’t call people morons in this country. It seems to me you are getting your fair share of the green ones; somehow, sir, I do not think we will apply your American version of United States Community Reinvestment Act here.
I look forward to the next edition. – Makkie Loots-Jordaan, Kanoneiland
Read the signs
For the past five years we have had what is called democracy in South Africa. Judging by the actions and utterances of those in power, it is clear that the African National Congress’s concept of democracy differs from that of the majority of countries in the world, and it will take many more years before a state of true democracy can be achieved, if at all.
The situation that now exists in the Western Cape can only be called bizarre. Some ANC- affiliated organisations, among them the Congress of South African Students have threatened strike and other actions, because two opposition parties – the Democratic Party and the New National Party – have formed a coalition which gives them the majority of seats in the legislature. The seats offered to the ANC were rejected by them, as their aim is to become the ruling party in the province of the Western Cape. What kind of democracy is that?
The ANC want nothing but absolute power, and absolute power, as we know, corrupts absolutely. It also leads to dictatorship, which no one wants. South Africans should read the danger signs. – Vanessa Norton, Buccleuch
Dictatorial zealots
I was flabbergasted to read how a cabal of conservative Christian surfers in Jeffreys Bay (“Surfing ceremony makes holy waves”, July 2 to 8) railroaded an initiative to have sangomas bless the waves before a prestigious international surfing event.
The smug presumptuousness, blinkered self- righteousness and missionary arrogance of this group of individuals is utterly unacceptable.
For this bunch of bourgeois hypocrites to brand the proposed ceremony “pagan” is reactionary beyond any tolerable degree. The elements of nature have been worshipped long before any “civilised” Christian polluted the planet with their hysterical dogma, and surfing, of all sports, is one whose spiritual dimensions transcend the paranoid whingeing of a bunch of zealots with an anally dictatorial agenda.
Who the fuck are they to determine what’s right? The ultimate expresion of Christianity is to be found in the Spanish Inquisition where thousands were tortured and killed for not believing in the “right thing”, and it seems that spirit is still alive and well today. How dare they? I sure hope the surf is as flat as the Earth these assholes still pathetically cling to. – Aaron Albany, Amanzimtoti