Too red to see green
Thank you for a sober reaction to political statements by South Africa’s rulers undermining the use of environmental impact assessments (”Mbeki joins assault on green laws”, August 4).
They should be reminded that the Constitution provides for ”an environment that is not harmful to … health and wellbeing”. To enforce this right, we may be forced to go to the Constitutional Court.
The Constitution does not qualify environmental rights with reference to ”available resources” and ”progressive realisation”, as it does with housing and healthcare. It talks of the right ”to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations”, and specifies that development and the use of natural resources must be ecologically sustainable.
Once ecological damage has been done, remediation may be impossible or far more costly than prevention. Maintaining a healthy environment is both preferable and more affordable than healthcare.
Where in the value system of ubuntu, which President Thabo Mbeki urges us to ”integrate into the national consciousness”, is there justification for putting private profit and accelerated consumption before constitutional rights?
The claim that green laws are responsible for ”slowing down of economic activity” is a guess, rather than a demonstrated trend, and may be a handy excuse for the lack of trickle-down benefits reaching the ”second economy”.
Particularly worrying is the suggestion that consultants process environmental impact assessment (EIA) applications. There are already concerns about the questionable independence of consultants running EIA processes for project developers.
If the backlog of EIAs is ”frightening”, the government should allocate the resources to hire the necessary staff, rather than pay consultants to make decisions for it.
If development is to be about a lot more than gross domestic product figures, as Mbeki suggested in his Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture, we need capable officials with the political support to insist project proponents provide the information needed for responsible decision-making.
The more rigorous and honest the assessment process, the easier officials will find it to make timely decisions.
Most Cabinet members do not seem to understand that there is no conflict between ecologically sound and people-friendly development. Alec Erwin, whom you said was ”so red he can’t see green”:
- presides over a state-owned enterprise that flouts the White Paper on Energy Policy, which committed government to ”ensuring that an equitable level of national resources is invested in renewable technologies”;
- champions South Africa as a destination for energy-intensive industries — a strategy premised on massive expansion of coal use;
- declares that a new nuclear power station will be built, when Eskom does not expect results of the feasibility study before the end of the year, and asserts that it will be on line in record time.
Such top-down, centralised energy development based on finite resources provides at best one-tenth of the employment involved in using renewable energy sources, and will mean higher energy costs — in 10 or 15 years — than would be achieved by accelerated development of local industries in renewable energy technologies.
There is no point in harping on about Millennium Development Goals and the Johannesburg Programme of Implementation — the main outcome of the 2002 sustainable development summit — if our leaders routinely ignore the latter option. — Richard Worthington, Earthlife Africa
Stop the handwringing!
My request to the Concerned Jews is: stop being precious handwringers; face up to the reality of the threats to Israel; be eternally grateful for the lucky choice of your ancestors in coming to South Africa (where they prospered greatly); and stop being the useful idiots of those who will not accept the right of Israel to exist. — John Mendelsohn, Johannesburg
![]()
South Africa must invade Zimbabwe:
- we don’t like their kind of democracy;
- their nationals come across our border on a regular basis, and are involved in violent activity against our citizens;
- a paramilitary organisation, the ZimDollah, is lying in wait just north of the border, intent on the destruction of our state.
- We can be certain of the West’s backing, as the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom are pushing for regime change.
Ridiculous? An analogous situation exists in the Middle East. — RA Morgan, Pinelands
![]()
Centralisers are power-hungry
Vicki Robinson reports that the African National Congress is debating the future of the nine provinces (”ANC move to scrap provinces”, July 28). The fact that some provinces are not functioning well is not a good reason for abolishing the entire provincial system and replacing it with a unitary one. Nor is the fact that provincial government is expensive. Democratic and accountable government is, by its nature, expensive.
If some provinces lack experience and capacity they should be empowered. The Constitution also allows central government to intervene if provincial and local government malfunction.
The Constitution’s basic structure was the product of a historic compromise. It should be allowed to develop incrementally and not be radically changed to destroy its fundamental character.
It would be most unwise for the ANC to remove important checks and balances inherent in a federal system of government, based on a geographical division of power, that ensure accountable government.
South Africans, having achieved a democratic system of government at a sublimely great cost, need to deepen it and extend its benefits to all South Africans.
And the Constitution needs to be defended against the predations of the power-hungry and politically unscrupulous in the new body politic, who wish to centralise power. — George Devenish, Durban
![]()
Raising the Coke index
Michael Holman makes some valid points about Africa creating and owning the tools to assess its own development (”At least agree on the hymn sheet”, July 14), but his list of indicators of human development is troubling.
It includes the questions ”Are sales of beer and soft drinks picking up?” and ”Is the size of detergent packets shrinking?” What do these have to do with improving the human condition in Africa?
In many parts of Africa, one can easily purchase Coke but not access safe drinking water. Soft-drink consumption is, rather, an indication of how business and the bottom line take precedence over human life.
If development is merely to create conditions for foreign investment, we are simply perpetuating ”Africa’s deepening crisis of dependence” (Holman’s own words) and North/South disparities. — Rachel Elfenbein, Cape Town
![]()
A long-standing bond
It is appropriate that Swaziland’s King Mswati has appointed FW de Klerk as his adviser, as this confirms the long-standing collaboration of the Swazi royal family and the apartheid establishment.
Swazi government spokesperson Percy Simelane said the appointment was meant to be a secret. Secrecy has been a prime feature of the relationship for years. The following are among the highlights of this long-standing collaboration:
- Pretoria advocate Van Wyk de Vries worked with King Sobhuza to design the 1973 king’s decree that banned political parties.
- At the height of mass mobilisation in Swaziland in 1996, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) threatened to intervene in support of the Swazi government, saying the African National Congress was supporting the Swazi opposition in destabilising the country. A meeting between a senior prince and the AWB took place in Swaziland.
- Swaziland and Malawi participated in the apartheid regime’s failed Constellation of Southern African states, aimed at the destruction of liberation movements. The bantustans also participated.
- Swaziland was used by South Africa as a base for sanctions-busting.
- Swaziland signed a secret non-aggression pact with the apartheid regime in February 1982 and consolidated it through the 1984 extradition treaty as a firm legal basis for the prosecution of the apartheid regime’s ”total strategy”.
This led to the arrest and death of many ANC and Swazi cadres — 78 are mentioned in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report.
De Klerk was a long-standing member of the Broederbond, the apartheid cabinet and the security establishment that turned South Africa into a military state. He succeeded in negotiating a deal that guaranteed the protection of white minority privilege at the height of South Africa’s revolution.
This makes him a relevant choice for the Swazi monarchy, which faces similar circumstances. It must come to terms with the reality that democracy is inevitable in Swaziland, and must position itself to guarantee that its interests remain secure.
De Klerk can be expected to deliver a sophisticated strategy that enables the Swazi royal family to emerge intact, with a few changes in the ruling faces, but not in the structure of ownership and the country’s real power centres. — Bongani Masuku, Braamfontein
![]()
SABC biased against Limpopo
I am anti-tribalist, but the situation in Limpopo saddens me. The ANC gets huge support there, yet shows no gratitude to its poor ”voting cattle”.
One sees the attitude of the authorities in the fact that the province’s three major languages, Xitsonga, TshiVenda and Sepedi, are the most marginalised by the SABC.
It broadcasts only 30 minutes of news in each of these languages a week, yet isiXhosa and isiZulu get hours of airplay every day. It’s not just the news. All African language dramas are in Xhosa, Zulu and other languages, except Muvhango, a supposed Venda drama dominated by Setswana.
Progressive people from Limpopo have made a huge contribution to the new South Africa — consider Mbhazima Shilowa, Tito Mboweni, Jomo Sono, Cyril Ramaphosa and Joel Netshitenzhe. Aren’t they concerned about their languages getting proper representation?
The language discrimination we suffer now is similar to what happened under apartheid, and we should react in the same way. Why don’t the people of Limpopo threaten the ANC and other parties that if they don’t take them seriously they will start their own organisations?
The people of Limpopo are among South Africa’s most highly educated — sooner or later they will take action. It would be prudent for the ANC to start ensuring delivery to the loyal people of Limpopo. — Joshua Maluleke, Tshwane
![]()
Slip showing
Pearlie Joubert presented a generally balanced picture in her article on sexual misconduct by church personnel (”Church probes 24 paedo-priests”, July 28).
But the Mail & Guardian‘s usually high standards slipped when it claimed that James McCauley ”was put in charge of a parish, but sexually abused children again”.
The one allegation against McCauley was by a 27-year-old who refused to go to the police and recently again refused to lay charges.
At the time of his death, McCauley had not been asked to plead, so his name should not have been published — particularly by a paper jealous of its reputation for journalistic integrity. — Rev Sean Wales