Take crime seriously!
Sadly, Justine White’s experience of ill-treatment by the police is not isolated and Booysens is not the only police station where people who report crimes are treated shabbily (”The police must also respect the Constitution”, November 10). As a relative newcomer to South Africa, it saddens me and makes me angry.
On October 16 I was assaulted on Durban beachfront. I fought off an attacker who put his hand between my legs, tried to kiss and grope me and ran off with my MP3 player.
I opened my case at North Beach, giving my statement to an officer beneath a poster advertising that the South African Police Service is sensitive to the special needs of women victims of crime. After I gave details of the assault, the officer suggested the case was robbery. Still in shock, I agreed.
When I telephoned Durban Central the next day to change the charge to sexual assault, I was hung up on.
Four days later I saw my attacker working as a waiter in a restaurant. I identified him to the police who arrested him and took him to Durban Central. I was told he would be held there until he appeared in court. I asked about upgrading the charge and was told to speak to the investigating officer, who would be in touch soon.
I am still waiting to hear from my investigating officer — Inspector Jili — who, when I phone, is nowhere to be found. I have left messages, including one with his commanding officer, who has usually ”just left” or ”is not in today”. Most of the time, the phone is engaged or just rings during working hours.
Apparently, my attacker was released hours after his arrest, and no one has ever contacted me to get my side of the story or inform me of what is going on.
Justice in this case is unlikely to be done because nobody bothered to take the details properly. My attacker will not be charged and is perhaps now assaulting other women. And I was not treated with sensitivity or respect.
I am getting over my assault; I am well aware that worse things happen to people every day, but I am also sure that most people don’t speak out.
It is this that makes me angry: What hope is there that survivors of worse assaults will be treated any better? South Africa has a serious crime problem. Start by taking reports of crime seriously, and treating survivors with dignity. These are the first essential steps towards change. — Eleanor Hazell, Durban
I wish I had been as brave as Justine White when, several months ago, the body of a woman killed on our road outside our house in Johannesburg was left for three hours in full view of Saturday morning shoppers and passers-by.
The paramedics came within five minutes. Why should the police take so long? Saturday morning is not peak time, surely!
Police officers did eventually come from Fourways, a long haul to Grant Avenue in Norwood. We have a communication problem, one said by way of apology. I was reminded of the dog image that runs through JM Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace. It was a disgrace — and unconstitutional. — Wendy Young
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Rich and poor are to blame
In the ”Leon versus Macleod” debate, both sides are correct. Rich nations do gobble up the world’s resources, but the sheer weight of numbers can make poor nations equally destructive.
Lesotho has one of the smallest areas set aside for parks in the world — 0,4% — and has lost 12 mammal species over the past century. This occurred mainly because of rampant population growth — Lesotho’s population is five times larger than a century ago. By comparison, 13,5% of the United States is under some form of federal conservation.
Rich people in the West regard wildlife as actively traded commodities, whereas poor people need them to survive. But rich people consume vast quantities of non-renewable resources and threaten the planet’s existence.
Neither rich nor poor comes near the ideal of ”sustainable utilisation”. — Michael Brett, Hartebeeshoek
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New rules needed for media
Judge Hilary Squires’s denial of ever having said there was a corrupt relationship between Schabir Shaik and Jacob Zuma underscores the media’s influence and the need for scrutiny of its reporting.
The media are controlled by corporations that increasingly constitute a global industry driven by profit and loss. Yet the media exercise great power by giving us the central narratives of our society.
How free is the practice of journalism? How fair have the media been to Zuma, and have they contributed to the common culture South Africa needs to stay united?
New rules and serious enforcement are needed on information release by both the courts and the media.
In other countries, the courts cannot release material relating to state and business secrets or which violates individual privacy. Media organisations are banned from predicting trial rulings or giving opinions beyond legal procedure.
Our media should be required to report accurately on actual cases with authentic evidence, to avoid false information being passed to the public. Surely this would prevent what is happening in the Zuma case.
And judges and court staff should be disciplined for giving interviews without approval. — Singabakho Nxumalo, Monitoring SA
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Even Pringle’s Chinese
It was with horror that I did the rounds in Sandton City the other day: 90% of the goods are made in China, even brands like Pringle of Scotland!
Our national rugby shirt is made in China; even the caps and shirts in the Kruger Park are made there.
And who says Chinese articles are cheaper? The rugby shirt costs R596!
According to statistics, 17 000 South African clothing and textile workers have lost their jobs in the past three years. Wake up South Africa! Where are our Proudly South African goods? — Jennifer Slutzkin
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Why no tanks?
The M&G misses the point on water provision. Water can be provided cheaply, as long as it is only drinking water that is clean.
I live on a property without a ground-water supply, and was recently told I should demand my ”right” to have water tankered in. In fact, I have gutters and rain tanks and can store enough water to keep myself clean and grow vegetables for six months.
A couple of 25-litre jerry-cans from the neighbour’s borehole provides weeks of drinking water, and since donkeys bring it, no fuel is used.
Taps encourage waste; with buckets you know what you’re using.
In a water-deficient country like ours, we should have known this years ago. Yet all the new housing I have seen is without gutters and tanks. Why is it not a mandatory requirement in all new buildings? — Peta A Jones, Tshitandani/Makhado
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Chop suey also ‘non-African’
Those who oppose the Civil Unions Bill on grounds of ”non-Africanism” and religion are hypocrites. Their objections are usually expressed in English, a non-African language, using the Latin alphabet. Do they object to using the number zero (invented in India and written with an Arabic numeral) or abstain from Chinese food? Christianity was invented in the Middle East and introduced here by Europeans.
To adhere blindly to ”non-Africanism” would leave us culturally and intellectually impoverished.
Since the ”non-African” argument doesn’t work, that leaves religion, which mainly offers a blind recitation of scripture.
Theft, murder and rape are obvious wrongs that don’t require religious proscription. At the very least, we don’t want to be victims of them, and, hopefully, we don’t want them to happen to others. But homosexuality doesn’t fit in with this — between consenting adults, it has no victims.
Only a petulant and pathetic god would punish consenting adults because of their sexual preferences. Being gay is about as morally significant as hair colour.
Instead of complaining about the Bill’s ”non-Africanism” and ”sinfulness”, we should be glad to have a Constitution that can form the basis of a morally advanced society. — Gordon Wells, University of Pretoria
Zapiro’s online cartoon ”Gay Marriages” naively takes the view that objectors are wife-beaters, philanderers or clergymen.
He apparently subscribes to the Gay Rights Movement’s habit of labelling those who disagree with it ”homophobic”. This intimidatory tactic stifles debate.
Why do seemingly intelligent people sink to labelling others to win their argument? Because their viewpoint lacks merit and they have to cloud the issue, like the politicians who play the race card?
Perhaps I should sink to their level and start branding them ”heterophobes” … — Chris Morley, Addo
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PW a soulless being
It is a pity Paul Jackson (”Hatchet job on Botha”, November 17) was not a victim of apartheid. He speaks from a position of privilege about something he never experienced.
I am annoyed by white compatriots who try to tell us that apartheid and leaders like PW Botha were somehow justifiable.
Jackson objects to the reference in the Mail & Guardian editorial to the emergency years when the security forces killed with impunity and Botha was at the helm. Worst of all, when the drums of reconciliation sounded, Botha chose deafness and described our healing process — the truth commission — as a ”circus”.
How can Jackson rush to the defence of such a soulless being? — Disco Lethogile, Ganyesa
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We need Khans
In the shackdwellers’ movement, we do not have the money to train as academics or send our children to train as academics. Therefore, we rely on others to bring back the fruits of their knowledge to the poor.
University of KwaZulu-Natal lecturer Fazel Khan is one of few academics who brings his learning to the people. For UKZN to bring him before a disciplinary committee is unacceptable.
The universities must work to build more Khans. If they try to destroy them, they, as institutions, will just be about individuals getting good jobs for themselves — they will not be about the society any more.
If we do not stand against this action, UKZN as a social project will cease to exist, and the fruits of academic learning will be lost to the poor.
There is no point in sending students to university if they are banned from coming back to their communities and working with the poor — as Khan has done. — S’bu Zikode, president, Abahlali baseMjondolo
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Right of appeal
In last week’s Mail & Guardian, the FXI’s Jane Duncan condemned the refusal of the Jewish Report (JR) to publish Ronnie Kasril’s reply to my article on Israel/Palestine (November 17).
Did the FXI meet or contact JR editor Geoff Sifrin before reaching a decision? How much time was Sifrin given to make his submission on behalf of the JR to the FXI?
What internal process was taken at the FXI before a decision was reached in the case? Are the minutes of any internal FXI meeting open to public scrutiny? And finally: is there a right of appeal? — Anthony Posner
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In brief
Perhaps Cosatu’s Zwelinzima Vavi should not protest too much about the (mis)use of the term ”generally corrupt relationship”. If anyone in Cosatu had read Judge Hilary Squires’s judgement when it first came out, they would have picked it up months ago. The Appeal Court judgement has also apparently gone unread, given that the phrase is tucked away in an introductory paragraph relating to seizure of Schabir Shaik’s assets.– Stephen Law, Cape Town
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Israeli forces have killed 19 Palestinian children and injured 300 in November alone. According to Unicef, 116 children have been killed this year, compared to 52 last year. Communities are being destroyed and confined to their homes, often without food, water or electricity. When will the world wake up to this silent genocide? — Rasimeni Manjezi, Cape Town
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South Africans should be proud of our democratic Parliament. However, while the Travelgate rogues, who blatantly defrauded Parliament and taxpayers, continue sitting among the good guys, I can feel nothing but revulsion for that institution. — Frank Hartry, Kingsburgh
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It’s not just Tony Yengeni who treats us like moegoes (November 17). The prominent individuals who gave him that distasteful send-off when he went to tjoekie are as guilty. Remember the speeches at Brett Kebble’s funeral, with the coffin draped with the national flag, nogal. Where are the speech-makers now? — Pieter Wolvaardt, Grahamstown North