The Wail fills the passion gap
Goodness gracious me! All these years I thought Steven Fried-person wrote the horse-racing column!
Thank you, Madame Editor, for the honorary mention in your ”A 21st century M&G” piece celebrating/commemorating/salivating on 20 years of the newspaper. My Saturday afternoon slumber was pleasantly interrupted by an old friend, Aso Balan from Sangonet, who ”broke the news”. I had not yet seen the M&G: only Honey’s sells it in the Gatesville area — and Friday in Gatesville is another story.
So, this morning (Sunday) I chug along in my trusty old comrade-car and purchase two copies at Exclusives in Somerset Mall. Imagine that, I have to travel right out of the visdorpie where I live, to another part of the planet for my monthly read. There is no bookstore out here in Eerste River. Sigh.
I need to tell you that the newspaper has found its way into non-larney parts of the Mugger City over the years.
For example, in my time travelling to Stellenbosch (1987-89, to Gilbeys), I passed on copies of The Weekly Mail and the New Nation to ordinary (KWV and Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery, and other) workers on the train.
I recall one young worker wanting to pay me for it, with the comment that it was his way of showing appreciation for the type of resource I was passing on to him.
Then, in my time at the now deceased career-NGO, CRIC (2000-2002), the M&G landed up in Delft South, where we were recruiting learners for a Department of Economic Affairs IT programme. I recall purchasing it five times one particular Friday, as my copy kept on disappearing into the welcome arms of someone from that area.
Down here at RAG (Resource Action Group) where I try to apply my adult education skills, I have also taken to passing on copies to young computer literacy trainees, especially those who say they want to be journalists — one quickly finds out if they are really passionate if they used to read The Weekly Wail!
One fine day I was pleasantly surprised to see the paper in the local Pick ‘n Pay at Nyanga Junction. I should not have been surprised. I recall a female friend phoning me not too many moons ago, frantically inquiring as to what was on the front page. She said she couldn’t find a copy of the paper anywhere in Manenberg.
Yes, one can find the M&G in Manenberg — but as Rosline, says, ”on every corner”. — David Kapp, Eerste River
loveLife not a solo effort
Cosatu’s Neva Makgetla (November 25) feels loveLife likes to go it alone, oblivious to the social and structural determinants of HIV infection. Is she dismissing the 135 community-based organisations that are loveLife’s implementation partners, or does she not know they exist?
The groundBREAKERS who implement loveLife in hundreds of communities are often puzzled when they are attacked by those who haven’t seen them in action. Critique by website review has its limitations.
groundBREAKERS are supported by 5 000 youth activists called mpintshis, a partnership with the social development department and Umsobomvu Fund as a response to the socio-economic drivers of HIV infection. Over half work in deep rural and farming areas.
More than 75% of the 1 500 groundBREAKERS who graduate each year get jobs immediately — many through Kurisani, an investment company set up for young people reached by loveLife. A further 30 women graduates are accepted annually into CIDA University as part of efforts to address gender inequalities that fuel HIV infection.
loveLife has a partnership with the Health Department; the youth-friendly clinic initiative supports 500 government clinics. The loveLife Games are a partnership with the departments of education and sport, which enable 250 000 youngsters from every region to participate in sport, debating and arts. There are also corporate partnerships with Anglo American, Southern Sun, Avis, Ster-Kinekor and others.
Does loveLife work in isolation? No. But we’re keen to extend our collaboration. We’d be happy to work with Cosatu. — David Harrison, CEO, loveLife
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Burn
(In Memory of George Best)
For a moment
the child
found himself
was in his
element
ran, and the world
stood awestruck, battled
to keep the image in
focus,
watched as he burned like a meteor, dazzling the
gods themselves in his shirt of fire
who
still cannot fathom
how that mastery of space and
time
fluidity, grace, command of
free motion
could sink, could
drown
be allowed to die.
— Damian Garside, University of KwaZulu-Natal
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Taxi trade must be pared down
Jeremy Cronin (November 25) correctly lambastes the earlier versions of the taxi recap programme, but fails to acknowledge a critical point. Many — arguably most — of the industry’s problems can be traced to an excessive number of operators. Resultant low earnings lead to under-maintenance of vehicles and violence aimed at controlling routes.
Cronin — a communist — fails to note that the industry is an excellent example of why ”perfect competition” does not necessarily yield desirable social consequences.
The government has understandably tried to tiptoe around the fact that the programme’s objective must be to reduce vehicles/operators to a sustainable level. The social consequences of this need to be looked at, but let us be in no doubt that leaving the industry at its current size will only harm the long-suffering commuters Cronin wants to help. — Sean Muller
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An election smokescreen
Eastern Cape minister Gugile Nkwinti’s tirade against game farmers (November 25) should be put into context. His government, through the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, supported the Mantis group’s acquisition of much of Alicedale. The national government, through SANParks, acquired a huge swathe of farms to extend Addo. His government, through Gear, has done all in its power to increase overseas investment and the growth of tourism in the region.
When Max Mamase was local government minister, he initiated an imaginative programme to fast-track mass housing for the rapidly urbanising province, using the capacity of six large corporations. When he took over, Nkwinti demanded that larger houses be built for the same subsidy per unit, and effectively destroyed the programme. Only one of the companies is now involved, housing completions have slowed and the quality of houses plummeted.
The processing of land claims has also been disgracefully slow. Once lodged, a claim inhibits owners from making rational business decisions. Small wonder that farmers seek the protection of larger business units — especially in areas unsuitable for intensive cultivation or small-scale co-operative ventures, the almost inevitable outcome of communal land claims.
Nkwinti’s remarks are a local election smokescreen to distract voters from the effects of his own policies and the failures of his government. — Michael G Whisson, Rhodes University
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Nya-nya-nya!
A few weeks ago the Mail & Guardian smeared Noam Chomsky. His support for observers who feel the Western media exaggerated the Srebrenica massacre for political purposes was labelled ”flaky”, meaning that anyone who questions the Western media’s version of events is insane.
One can see why this ran in the London Guardian; the British government backs the American war against the non-Jewish people of the Middle East, Chomsky is a prominent opponent of that war, The Guardian supports the British government, hence smearing Chomsky made sense.
South Africa doesn’t have much to do with this. Chomsky’s never cared about Africa. Apart from a few wack-jobs in the Democratic Alliance, nearly no South Africans support the American wars in the Middle East. So why the M&G ran the story is hard to follow.
Two weeks later comes the official white line, from Drew Forrest, that Chomsky is too proud. Apparently some awful readers dared to write to complain about the smear.
This is horrid, says Forrest, because it is a sign of the ”hard left” to object to smears. Worse still, Chomsky himself wrote to The Guardian noting that the smear article was ill-informed, proving that he deserves his fate. Forrest explains that Chomsky hates Jews and supports mass murder, proving this by — well, he doesn’t prove it, but who needs proof?
Recently, a bloke called Anthony Brink, who opposes anti-retroviral drugs, wrote a book (unpublished) in which he made fun of some South African journalists. A journalist found those jibes and wrote an innocuous article about it — which the M&G editors headlined calling Brink a ”loony”. Brink, rightly, took the matter to the Press Council, whose ombudsman, wrongly, decided that people who criticise journalists deserve to be smeared: ”Nya-nya-nya!”
Freedom of speech isn’t about being right or good. When you are falsely smeared as a lunatic and can’t defend yourself, you aren’t free.
This is what happened to Chomsky, and now we have Forrest boldly saying we (well, our wealthy masters in London who we obey even though our Zimbabwean holding company has no links to them, right?), we smeared Chomsky, and we’ll do it again, ditto to John Pilger, and you hard leftists out there can’t stop us! Nya-nya-nya! — Mathew Blatchford, University of Fort Hare
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Awuleth’ iJetta yam’
I was intrigued by Tennyson Mahlambi’s characterisation of Jacob Zuma’s supporters as ”Levi’s-clad, Samsung D500-carrying supporters” (Letters, November 11). I have to admit to wearing Levi’s (because they fit my shape) and to carrying a Samsung D500 (when I became sufficiently economically empowered to upgrade from pay-as-you-go to contract, that’s what they gave me).
I never suspected that this automatically qualified me as a Zuma supporter, but wasn’t displeased. I looked forward to regular seaside holidays in Durban for court appearances and in Cape Town for the funeral of the next dodgy mining magnate to meet a sad end.
Yet I’d barely had time to learn all the words of Awuleth’ umshini wam’ before Ferial Haffajee (”Black money, white angst”, November 25) declared that ”scruffy Levi’s” were the mark of carping white folks with beat-up Jettas.
Where does that leave me? If I have to forfeit the Durban holidays, can I please have a beat-up Jetta in compensation? — Justin Pearce, Auckland Park
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It is all very well for Haffajee to defend the new black elite and sneer at their critics on the left. But what values are these elites advancing to take South Africa into a better future? — Mary Turok
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In the context of pervasive poverty, conspicuous consumption by the old white and new black elite is equally revolting and deserving of derision. — Eduard Grebe, Cape Town