/ 25 November 2005

June 23 – June 29 2006

Libel? It happened!

The South African Zionist Federation angrily slates as “libellous” Khadija Magardie’s reference to Israeli soldiers roughing up Palestinian workers at checkpoints and shooting little schoolgirls in the head, then coming down [from] the guard tower to “confirm the kill” (“How low can you go?” May 26).

The latter incident happened, and was extensively reported.

In October 2004, an Israeli officer identified as Captain R was charged with the shooting of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams. The Guardian reported on November 24: “The officer … was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming of an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun’s magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a ‘security area’ on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month.

“A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, played on Israeli television, contradicts the army’s account of the events and appears to show that the captain shot the girl in cold blood. [After the girl was shot] Captain R took the unusual decision to leave [his] post in pursuit of the girl. He shot her dead and then ‘confirmed the kill’ by emptying his magazine into her body.”

In a statement after the incident, the officer was reported as dismissing a warning from another soldier that she was a child, saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old.

There are also a number of books, blogs, news articles and other sources of information about the way in which (certain) Israeli soldiers at checkpoints treat Palestinians

I mention this not in order to “prove” that Israelis are animals who mistreat those under their power, or that every checkpoint is a terrorist target waiting to be attacked, but to point out that every side has its own version of events.

The Zionist Federation should therefore not be so quick to point fingers and cry “untruth” about something that does not tally with its version, but accept that atrocities are committed by both sides in this senseless conflict. — Sue-Ann, Johannesburg

Magardie wrote nothing less than the complete truth. The irony of a liberated group (women) using their newfound position to oppress others (Palestinians) was completely lost on the Zionist Federation. The federation also denies the simple truth that Israeli soldiers do kill children, in one case pumping an entire magazine into the lifeless body of a schoolgirl after she was killed at close range.

That Israeli soldiers routinely ill-treat Palestinians at checkpoints is also well documented, for example as seen in the documentary Checkpoint shown on SABC TV.

Inverting Bev Goldman’s logic that every Palestinian is a potential terrorist, one can reasonably claim that every Israeli is a potential soldier and therefore a legitimate target under international law, which allows people to resist illegal occupation.

But the Zionist Federation has a broader agenda — to create pressure on the media to force it to curtail criticism of Israel’s barbarity.

Goldman and her ilk obviously underestimate the tenacity of the M&G, which has survived other attempts at censorship by a regime similar to that of Israel. — Musa Manzini, Cape Town

Mbeki no champion of women

Reacting to charges that his presidency is drifting towards dictatorship, President Thabo Mbeki told Parliament that being the loudest voice does not mean being the wisest. But it is Mbeki who is trying to take advantage of the fact that women are the majority in South Africa. He wants to use their voice to mobilise support for himself, to ensure a third term as African National Congress president and control over the next state president.

If he was truly for female emancipation, he would be making more public appearances with his wife. He wouldn’t have pushed Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in public and embarrassed her publicly, a barbaric act for which he has never apologised.

He would not have reduced the ANC Women’s League to being his puppet and mouthpiece. He would have avoided a battle about the provision of Nevirapine to pregnant women.

After the ANC national general council, Mbeki said on television that people should stop talking about the succession. Yet not even a year later he started a campaign for his chosen successor.

This shows his dictatorial tendencies. As Zwelinzima Vavi has said, dictatorship does not announce its arrival. Robert Mugabe started with a progressive land redistribution policy, but has since terrorised the Zimbabwean people.

I am happy that progressive structures like the ANC Youth League, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Students are willing to speak out and protect our democracy from becoming unstable.

As a young person, I am proud of the leadership of the mighty Fikile Mbalula and the evergreen Buti Manamela. — Ntuthuko Mahlaba, Newcastle

Not a desperate salvage bid

With reference to Darryl Accone’s article “Is English the new Afrikaans?” (June 2), the translation of Afrikaans texts into English is not a new phenomenon. It is, however, true that there is a conscious and more concerted initiative by publishers Tafelberg and Human & Rousseau to give greater exposure to Afrikaans authors both locally and internationally by publishing their works in English.

This is not a desperate attempt to salvage a dying language, but an opportunity to exhibit the quality and variety of contemporary Afrikaans literature, engendering greater international interest. We believe it may even send some readers back to the originals.

English readers in South Africa may, for example, look forward to the English translation of Marlene van Niekerk’s astounding Agaat in October as a co-publication by Tafelberg and Jonathan Ball. Marita van der Vyver’s next novel will be published simultaneously in English and Afrikaans by Tafelberg this year.

Etienne van Heerden, one of our authors whose works are regularly translated into English and other languages, has not “abandoned [his] mother tongue”, as Accone suggests.

All his work, including his most recent novel, In Stede van die Liefde, were first published in Afrikaans. While he may experiment with writing in English, he is not contemplating becoming an exclusively English author. — Eloise Wessels, CEO, NB Publishers

Molobi: Kahle’s role vital

I am surprised so little has been said in the media about the relationship between Eric Molobi and the family of Ernst Kahle, CEO of Munich Reinsurance.

When Molobi was released from Robben Island in 1981, Beyers Naude approached Kahle to employ him. That laid the foundation for Molobi’s business acumen.

When the African National Congress was unbanned in 1990, Kahle made available two floors of the Munich Re building, in Johannesburg’s Sauer Street, to the party. It was here that Nelson Mandela had his first office after his release.

Kahle took a huge risk at a time when most other business executives were still coming to terms with the fact that the ANC had been unbanned.

When Kahle was killed in a car accident in 1993, Molobi gave a moving tribute at his funeral, acknowledging how much Kahle’s support and mentoring had meant to him in his time of need. — Marilyn Aitken, Underberg

Rein in ad agency, Merc!

As Mercedes-Benz is so committed to South Africa, we should advise it to rein in its ad agency. The advert for the SLK Cabriolet in last week’s Mail & Guardian, featuring a paper scavenger left in the dust on a city street, suggests they are seriously off message and have not read the government’s “Memories of the Future” scenarios.

The “S’gudi s’nais” scenario with the beggar watching the — what a coincidence! — convertible Merc drive past, is not where the government wants us to go. We are supposed to ride together into the future on the “Shosholoza Express”.

For those who have not read the scenarios, the S’gudi s’nais scenario is “characterised by conflicts between those who have-a-lot versus those who have-a-little … a result in the main of the rich concentrating on selfish, unethical amassing of wealth, helped by an indecisive state”. The Shosholoza train takes us into “a diverse and tolerant society whose local economy is surging ahead bringing millions of jobs and much greater participation in the robust economy”.

But DaimlerChrysler’s Jurgen Schremp is a member of the President’s International Investment Council, so perhaps he knows something that Joel Nethshitenzhe has not told us. — Mike Muller, Johannesburg

How was an image of a homeless person used to advertise a luxury vehicle? It was incomprehensibly insensitive, callous and cold-hearted. Shame on you M&G! — Storm Janse van Rensburg, Cape Town

The supplement on 100 Young South Africans was a disappointment. It features more CEOs than social activists. The plethora of business tycoons and entrepreneurs is reviewed uncritically and sits uneasily alongside principled activists like Fatima Hassan and Sipho Mthathi.

Come on M&G, the youth deserve your sharp, honest pen as much as Brett Kebble and Thabo Mbeki. — Doron Isaacs, Cape Town

Brilliant list, but why no Tom Eaton? Having helped make your paper what it is, and having established himself as easily the best writer under 30 in the media, I’d be pissed off if I was him! — Clive, Cape Town

What a splendid list. However, I suggest that next year you look south of the Hottentots Holland when profiling young artists. I am also perplexed by your omission of Tom Eaton. Excessive modesty on your part? — Angela Dempsey, Cape Town

Straw man, not dead white man

Shakespearean researchers, writers and teachers such as David Schalkwyk (who, incidentally, is a member of the editorial board of Shakespeare Quarterly, an international journal, and one of three editors of the Palgrave Macmillan monograph series on Shakespeare), Geoffrey Haresnape, Natasha Distiller and Nigel Bakker not only teach Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets to University of Cape Town (UCT) students, they also turn their minds to the successful teaching of Shakespeare in schools.

Bakker and Tony Parr from the University of the Western Cape edited the Active Shakespeare series. UCT recently nominated Schalkwyks’s book Speech and Performance in Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Plays (Cambridge University Press) as the institutional nomination for a major book award. Such action is hardly consistent with the marginalisation of the Bard at UCT.

The crucial point raised by Distiller in a recent lecture at UCT has unfortunately been lost in Robert Kirby’s column (June 9). Distiller is not asking whether we should teach Shakespeare in schools and universities, but rather, how. This is an important question, which should seriously engage us, as should the issue of transformation in higher education.

We are happy to debate these matters with Kirby, but can only do so if the straw men — more of a problem here than dead, or living, white men ‒ are set aside and we start from a basis of accurate information. — Paula Ensor, dean of humanities, UCT

Fine words

In the shadow of politicians’ fine words on Youth Day, our democracy has illegally arrested and deported Khalid Rashid. And our own Department of Home Affairs has lied about it and defied our courts.

Yes, Rashid was illegal here and should have been sent back. But if he faced terrorism charges in Pakistan, it was an extradition and South Africa violated its own legal proceedings and Constitution.

I thought we do not extradite to countries that impose the death penalty.

While commemorating the heroes fallen on June 16 1976 in their fight against apartheid, the government is using the tactics of the apartheid regime. — Theo Martinez, Johannesburg