Heed your subjects’ cries!
Paul Harris, you are my banker. Invest wisely: R20-million would help hire and train more than 20 000 more policemen and women.
You cannot stay on the sidelines and expect the government to provide all the time. Be ingenious. Come up with plans in tandem with government. Do not seek personal glory or act opportunistically.
Thabo Mbeki, you are my president. Open your eyes and ears and listen to the cries of your subjects.
For instance, in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, criminals are more afraid of community policing forums than they are of the police.
When people report crime at police stations, the criminals are on the street the next day looking for vengeance.
We people on the ground have no boom gates, no security personnel, no electric fences to keep criminals away.
Remember, my banker and my president, we are at your mercy. — Nkosiyedwa Sam
Mbeki says that “what is required is effective organisation, mobilisation and leadership of the masses in law enforcement”.
This cannot be done while the police are headed by a politician whose number two is an academic. Neither has worked a single day in the hurly-burly of crime prevention and detection.
Liberation politics is strangling the country. None of these so-called law enforcement leaders need fear for their jobs while they answer to a minister from their party.
To appoint the head of the revenue service, Pravin Gordhan, as police chief, as one newspaper suggested, might not be a bad idea given his energy and performance. But he also lacks the necessary background.
Meyer Kahn had lots of energy in brewing beer, but was hopelessly at sea in confronting crime.
Mbeki has identified the main problem areas. Now he needs to clear out the politicians and theorists, and run the police service in a practical manner. — David J Sloman, Magaliessig
Steve Friedman (February 9) correctly says we shouldn’t ask politicians to “do something” about crime when they are at a loss for what to do.
This was the essential weakness of the FNB’s abortive anti-crime agitation. It also left the bank open to criticism that FNB would do better looking to the social and economic causes of crime.
Business and government have no answer to crime because they favour the same model of economic growth. In addition to better countermeasures against organised criminality, the only hope of reducing crime is a commitment to a fairer, redistributive social order.
In the days of the RDP, a 1% levy was proposed on the value of all companies over a certain size to finance housing and other basic needs. Zola Skweyiya, one of our finest ministers, has raised the issue of the basic income grant in the ANC.
Such measures would send a strong and credible message that there is a commitment to alleviate the desperation that drives people to crime.
The swing to the left in Latin America suggests this opportunity may not be available to South Africa much longer. — Jack Lewis, Cape Town
Poverty is widely used as excuse for crime. Let Mbeki show the link between poverty and the rape of 50 000 women and children in South Africa last year!
And how practical is the president’s call for cooperation between government, business, churches and communities? The only institution with the authority, mandate and resources to maintain law and order is the government. — James Rush, Johannesburg
Why is government so pissed off at FNB for having the balls to admit crime levels are unacceptable?
I bet 99% of South Africans share FNB’s view. The other 1% is either behind bars or benefiting from crime.
Mr President, I have faith in your leadership and party. Please heed our words. — Felix Nkosana Zolani Kuku, Pretoria
Wherever the very rich live alongside the very poor, there is violent crime.
Putting another million police officers out there, and even bringing in the military, may curb crime for a while, but it will not get to the core of the problem. Under apartheid, the government tried to control a popular uprising by deploying hordes of policemen and soldiers, and it didn’t work.
It is incredibly important for affluent South Africans and business to get their attitudes right.
We have to put our money where our mouth is, and make a real and valid contribution to changing the living conditions of the poor.
If every one of us who has more than we need made it our business to change the life of just one poor person for the better, the impact would be phenomenal. This might involve the simple act of paying a living wage. — Rose Morrow, Durban
The reaction to Mbeki’s statement that crime is a problem, rather than a crisis, was overdone. We are far from Brazil, where criminal gangs brazenly have gun battles with the police in the middle of major cities.
Mbeki quotes statistics that the public does not relate to, but this is more because of his academic nature than lack of concern.
How many of the businesses that have chastised government support community police forums and cash-strapped neighbourhood watches, or add value to communities by shadow training and the like?
A Commonwealth report recently stated that South Africa cannot expect foreign direct investment when local companies don’t have the confidence to invest in their own country. It reported that large corporations are sitting on billions of rands.
Those of us who work with police crime-fighters find it extremely disturbing that businesses who complain most about crime are always too busy when asked to join the fight against it. — Lester September, Cape Town
Once again, disempowered workers are victims of BEE. This time they were left high and dry by their former comrade, Cheryl Carolus, and her cronies, Wendy Lucas-Bull, Dolly Mokgatle and Thandi Orleyn.
The price — R475-million worth of shares in electronics company Reunert, which the workers created through their sweat, tears and blood.
Our crime situation will never improve while multinationals like Reunert continue the trend of allowing a selected few, mostly with political connections, to rob workers.
BEE should be used to address crime by creating jobs and redistributing wealth to the majority — and especially to those who have helped create it. — Sibusiso Nkosi
I believe three of the Business Leadership SA protesters against the FNB campaign — Michael Spicer, Saki Macazoma and Jaco Maree — hold or held senior positions in Standard Bank. Was there another agenda? — Geoffrey G
I’m proud that in his speech Mbeki dealt with crime as vigorously as he did with our other important challenges, disappointing those who have elected themselves the mouthpiece of all South Africans in dictating what he should condemn.
The media, in particular, was pushing Mbeki to focus only on crime, as if all our other challenges will be settled by addressing it. To their discomfort — but the comfort of the majority of South Africans — he also mentioned poverty, poor delivery and corruption.
This showed his refusal to be dictated to by the privileged, who choose what is good for the majority without consulting them. — Luther Lebelo, Midrand
Stop blaming history
In his address to Parliament, President Thabo Mbeki failed to deal with the huge problem of South Africa’s non-functioning municipalities and government departments.
This week, the budget will make allocations to them — resources that, in many cases, will not be used for their intended purposes or will be squandered on dinners and other fruitless expenditures.
Then the Auditor General will conduct audits and find that some departments cannot account for expenditure or that funds are missing. Bold statements will be made on corruption. Some officials will be suspended and others will resign — some to return as independent service providers or consultants performing similar functions.
There’ll be talk of some project to consolidate finances and capacitate officials. Thereafter, nothing will happen until protests erupt or a kid falls down an unsecured manhole.
The explanation is always that there’s a lack of capacity to implement and a high vacancy rate in departments. It is then conveniently argued that this is the result of an acute skills shortage and we need more engineers. What engineers have to do with the proper running of a municipality’s financial affairs is beyond me.
There’ll be talk of Jipsa or some other divine intervention, or of importing skills from elsewhere.
In some cases, undeserving people get the jobs, while the deserving lack connections with the decision-makers.
Some officials have the necessary qualifications and experience, but have an unhelpful attitude to our people, displaying contempt and bitterness towards them for no reason. Take the licensing department in Vereeniging, where people queue from five in the morning, only to be told that the system is down.
Check who’s in charge — it’s one of us. We will never reverse the psychological effects of apartheid on our people if every time they seek government services they are made aware of how useless we can be in power.
And if a white person reacts to bureaucratic bungling by asking what is wrong, he’ll be proudly told his time is over and whites are no longer in charge. Is that really necessary?
Is the problem skills, or stupidity disguised as arrogance and a lack of willingness to serve? Or should we excuse these officials on grounds of incompetence, or the need for leadership?
I believe the problem is a lack of leadership and accountability, as well as an unwillingness to point fingers at ourselves, while blaming others and history. — Tshepo Lefera, Vereeniging
Give the angels hell, Kirby
Robert Kirby loathed everything I did with such passion, so much vitriol and bitchery, brilliance of phrase and sharpness of sarcasm, that I will miss him deeply.
It was an honour and a delight to be rubbished by such a unique voice.
Give the angels hell, Mr K! — Pieter-Dirk Uys, Darling
I didn’t always like what he wrote — I don’t think he wanted to be “popular” — but I appreciated being made to think, and to laugh.
Now I understand why there was no Not the Mail & Guardian this January. I missed it, as I will miss his regular contributions. I still cherish the Not the Mail & Guardian headline: “President Mbeki visits South Africa”.
Many of us will miss him. — Dawn Hull, Cape Town
Voiceless
I recently learnt that the government does not give grants to poor whites. If so, they are being discriminated against on the basis of skin colour, which is unfair.
Poor whites should not be discriminated against because of the past — they also deserve a better life.
There is no voice that speaks for this marginalised minority. Even white politicians don’t give a damn about their own poor. No one gives a hoot about them.
Poor whites must feel like strangers in their own land, and it shouldn’t be like that. They, too, are citizens of South Africa. — Thabile Mange
In brief
I agree with Frank Hartry (Letters, February 9) that there was not enough public outrage over the Waterkloof killers. But what leads people to commit such crimes is partly their belief that they will not get caught and that, if they do, their jail terms will be served out in comfort, if at all. Perhaps they noticed how Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik have been treated. Perhaps they were just too dumb to know there is a different sort of criminal justice for the politically powerful. — Dennis Hoines, Edenvale
I’m sure Ronald Suresh Roberts could put his skills to better use in Trinidad, his ramshackle island home. South Africans do not need arrogant and arse-licking natives, or rebels in the wrong cause, of his ilk. — Tlhalefang Nkabinde, Mafikeng
‘Opposition parties are there to condemn whatever government is doing,” says chief government spokesperson Themba Maseko (February 9). Not so. Opposition parties are there to represent and express the views of those who voted for them. — Clive Whitford , Grahamstown
We are concerned about exorbitant tariffs imposed on unemployed hostel-dwellers in Mamelodi. National leaders sing about fighting poverty while Tshwane’s municipal leaders bring discord to the song. We urge the municipality to be considerate to the plight of the poor, who should not be thrust into the wilderness because they cannot pay. — Puthi Ngoetjana, PAC, Tshwane