M&G gagged
Being a journalist myself, I am absolutely disgusted by what has happened. Can we regard South Africa as a genuine democratic nation and an example to the rest of Africa when those who once fought for democracy undermine one of the most important pillars of this phenomenon?
How can it be that authorities are allowed to tweak South Africa’s greatest asset in order to protect themselves and to deny its public information that is so crucial? It makes me sad and furious in the same time, and it almost makes me think that democracy in this country is nothing more than a paper tiger. I hope that the Mail & Guardian keeps its head up high. South Africa deserves to know the truth: the whole truth and nothing more than the truth. — Miriam Mannak
![]()
No more excuses for crime
I am getting tired of listening to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s excuses in downplaying the crime situation in South Africa. He reminds me of my two young daughters when they come up with excuses after they have done something wrong.
In an attempt to explain the crime trends, he links the increase of 2,4% in murder and 4,6% in aggravated robbery to the security strike between April and June last year. This, the minister says, should be further explained to citizens to understand better the increases in these two categories.
I wish the minister as well as the government would just acknowledge that crime is a serious problem in our country. What I would like to see from the government — and the ministers of safety and security as well as correctional services in particular — is a broad and vibrant campaign that assures peace-loving citizens nationwide that government is behind them. At the same time, the government must act in a way that sets the right signals for criminals and puts them in the right place — behind bars. — Aniela Batschari, East London
![]()
![]()
Accept wisdom now on Zim
There is a saying: ”Accept wisdom, even if it comes late, because often it never comes at all.” This applies to President Thabo Mbeki’s Zim policy. In brief, Mugabe has proven to be a classic dictator. He plays on the sentiments of whomever to justify his despotism. Underneath it all is a very incompetent person, looking out only for himself. He is persistent in making poor choices and most certainly will persist on this path.
His justifications have become irrelevant — we see the cost of millions that have already fled, and the migration out of desperation that still awaits many … if only Mbeki had followed his head, rather than his heart, much sooner. Now, even he privately knows, the old grouch to the north is guaranteed to be a blight.
Mbeki, on behalf of all the children, all the women, all the elderly, please act now. If you do so decisively to force the oppressor to exit, your belated wisdom will still be wisdom. It is not about white versus black, or colonialism versus African liberation. Those are the tricks of Old Grouch. It is another classic case of the struggle between despotism and democracy. As the leader of Africa’s strongest nation, the eyes are as much on you as they are on Mugabe. Remember the saying by Dante: ”The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” — Jacques du Plessis, Milwaukee
![]()
While I am in strong opposition to the United States invasion of Iraq and have been since before the war began, I see great justification for regime change in Zimbabwe — and South Africa is the rational agent for that change. Zimbabwe will be a thorn in the side of the economic and social development of Southern Africa until that takes place. The longer you wait, the higher the cost to the people of that nation and of all Southern Africa. — Jerome S, Newport Beach, California
![]()
![]()
Uyadelela uVicki!
Vicki Robinson (July 13) has written a personal and petty article on South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande’s ”bourgeois lifestyle” with such profound insights as ”he can be seen in his black Jeep Grand Cherokee, for which he has a driver”.
Since when do leaders have to live in squatter camps and travel by train? I hope Robinson travels by taxi to the M&G offices.
Emmarentia, where Nzimande lives, pales in comparison with the truly bourgeois Hyde Park, Bryanston and Sandton, where certain other leaders live.
Why should a twice-elected public representative, the former chair of Parliament’s education committee, and an executive leader of a mass organisation with a (non-honorary) PhD from a reputable institution and a wife who is a corporate executive at SABC be mired in poverty?
Why does Robinson make Nzimande stand out when two-thirds of the delegates flew to the SACP conference and the Mercedes-Benz was the leaders’ standard transport?
If the question is whether Nzimande is a fit leader, it was answered overwhelmingly at the conference, where he was returned unopposed to the position of general secretary. Uyadelela uVicki! — Bongani Majola, Midrand
![]()
By direction of the SACP, I am writing to demand a retraction and apology on information contained in the article ”Red Blade’s bourgeois lifestyle”, published on July 13.
We are outraged by the article, not only because it contains outright lies, but also because your journalist never contacted our general secretary or our offices to check her facts. This is a very serious violation of basic journalistic rules, forcing us to conclude that the information in the article and the timing of its publication — in the middle of our congress — was aimed at defaming our general secretary.
We are extremely disappointed by this behaviour, as it has the potential to damage not only the image and credibility of the journalist but also of a title like the M&G.
No newspaper worth its name can allow the publication of fabricated stories and fail to follow basic procedures. This is not the first time that the M&G has fabricated stories about our general secretary and the SACP.
Our general secretary does not earn the salary claimed in the article. As decided by the central committee, it is pegged at the level of an MP — a far smaller amount.
And he does not own four luxury vehicles, as you suggest. Even the car that he drives is not owned by him, but by the SACP through its car scheme. This provides for the user to pay half the instalments, with the user taking full ownership only after four years or on completion of payments.
The reporter’s assertion that he lives in a large house is subjective, as she does not specify in relation to what. No one from the M&G has ever requested to come and see his house. — Malesela Maleka, SACP spokesperson
![]()
ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe hit the bull’s eye by cautioning delegates at the SACP congress against the politics of sectarianism.
The ANC Youth League, Cosatu and the SACP seem to be reacting to tensions over the ANC ”succession debate” by purging dissenters. How long will we go on isolating and marginalising critical voices? How will we ensure that when the storm has abated we begin a healing process in our organisations?
It is the collective responsibility of incoming ANC leaders to launch a conscious unity process. This will be the acid test of the ANC’s leadership of the alliance.
We must begin laying the foundation by considering trade-offs and compromises as we nominate future leaders. Otherwide, there will be a cycle of factionalism and vendetta that will slowly poison the ANC and the National Democratic Revolution.
The victims will be the very people these organisations are meant to liberate, the downtrodden masses. — Walter Mothapo, Polokwane
![]()
In your July 13 editorial, you write as if the SACP has some relevance and its words and actions are worthy of notice.
We’ve seen what has happened in other countries which have espoused communism. Let’s pray it never happens here.
Of course, it’s unclear whether the SACP really is communist. Does it really mean to nationalise all South Africa’s land and enterprise? If it does, it must say so. If it doesn’t, it’s not a communist party.
On available evidence, the SACP is a small group of dreamers leading a rank and file jealous of those who are successful and yearning to dispossess them. As there are now as many successful blacks as there are whites, that isn’t going to be easy. — Ron McGregor, Cape Town
![]()
The SACP congress was a farce, as none of the leaders tried to address the contradiction between communist ideology and the direction of the alliance. After 13 years of democracy, they are still not prepared to chart an independent course.
They suggest ”going it alone” only to defend themselves against charges that they are willing participants in a capitalist alliance which maintains its power on the back of rising inequality.
Their size is insignificant, while they allow dual membership with an organisation of opposing ideology.
The SACP’s leaders are mainly interested in enriching themselves. They do not speak on behalf of the poor, but on succession in another organisation.
Nzimande, Jeremy Cronin et al must suffer from collective hearing loss, as they seem to have missed clear statements by ANC leaders that it is no place for socialism.
They are members of another party that believes the rich should get richer and some wealth will trickle down.
Can the SACP fulfil its stated agenda? Not while it remains in that quagmire of hypocrisy — the tripartite alliance. — Samore Herbstein, Azapo Gauteng
![]()
![]()
Disease, not Cubans, the biggest threat at Cuito
Piero Gleijese’s article ”Cuito revisited” (July 6) is very limited in its research.
As a front-line infantry ops medic in the conflict at Cuito Cuanavale and in Namibia in the last six months of 1988, the inaccuracies are obvious to me.
The analysis should have included interviews with South Africans who were there, as there is no official information from the South African side to counter-balance the political rhetoric.
If there had been truth to the broadcasts of the BBC World Service and Voice of America, specifically the Cuban claims about vehicles destroyed and personnel killed, our force would have been wiped out within weeks.
In reality, the biggest threat to the SADF at Cuito was not the Cubans or their air superiority, but jaundice, which depleted the force by a third.
We fought all the battles in Op Hooper without air cover and won them decisively. The East German and Russian pilots were better than the Cubans.
Political and economic factors in South Africa, and such events as the visit to the ANC in Zambia by Anglo American executives, played a greater role in ending apartheid than armed conflict.
If people are looking for an account of the Angolan battles, they should read Helmut Romer-Heitman’s book, which covers the main strategic incidents. — Russell Jones
![]()
![]()
Unisa cuts will hurt SA
Unisa’s plan to phase out a third of its humanities offerings seems at odds with international and national initiatives. Germany has declared 2007 the year of the humanities, and has provided millions of euros to empower small and marginalised humanities disciplines.
Harvard has changed its curriculum after 30 years to make courses in world societies and religious beliefs compulsory for all students.
The Chinese encourage their citizens to learn at least one foreign language.
The M&G‘s June spotlight on higher education says the University of Pretoria’s strategy is to internationalise, by, among other things, introducing Spanish. The University of Johannesburg plans to introduce 150 academic posts in the next three to four years
Why, then, is Unisa planning to get rid of its academics and to cut offerings in the humanities by a third? — Concerned academic
![]()
While Unisa principal Barney Pityana celebrated the role of intellectuals and decried the under-valuation of the arts at Grahamstown’s Wordfest, his university was preparing to slash the humanities.
Managerial decisions based on ”financial viability” and narrowly defined ”strategic value” threaten to erode the critical literacy underlying active citizenship. South Africa can’t afford this. — Unisa academic
![]()
![]()
Enrichment
Marcel Golding a ”social entrepreneur”? (July 13) I’m not so sure.
Social entrepreneurs look to find socio-economic solutions to large social ills like Aids and gangsterism. All Golding has done is enrich the unions and himself.
Most social entrepreneurs work in organisations without shareholding structures because ownership is fraught with problems. The clothing unions are now worth R3-billion, but have not reduced job losses.
A social entrepreneur would look to use this money to find innovative solution to problems in industry, as Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus has done in extending credit to Asia’s poor. — Charles Maisel, Men on the side of the road project
![]()
![]()
Kadalie carps from sidelines
I am sick of reading and hearing Rhoda Kadalie denigrating the ANC, as she did in her letter to the M&G about Ronald Suresh Roberts (July 6).
Where was Kadalie during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, before it became fashionable to belong to the ANC and be part of the struggle? Safely ensconced in academia.
In a recent article, she was described as ”a living legend”. The real legends in the Western Cape were women such as Daphne King, Lucille Meyer, Lucy Abrahams, Kay and Zubeida Jaffer, Nicky Rossouw, Shireen Rossouw, Zelda Haultzman, Virginia Engel, Zoe Khota, Veronica Simmers, Shaheeda Issel, Amy Thornton, Mildred Lesea and Cheryl Carolus.
Such women spent every waking moment organising, fighting, campaigning and suffering in UWO, CAHAC, CAYCO, the UDF, trade unions and student organisations.
They put their lives on the line and their careers and personal lives on hold so that Kadalie could have the voice that she now abuses.
She would have a more reasoned approach to the debate on our democracy and the Constitution if she had real experience of politics. What is needed is a broader understanding of the struggle, the ANC, other liberation movements and our history.
With Kadalie, as with the DA, the bitterness comes through. Anything and everything the government and the ANC do or say is fair game.
The press build up people like this, so that the venom, denigration, false accusations and downright dishonesty can continue unabated. — William Davy, Rondebosch, Cape Town
![]()
![]()
In brief
Nicole Johnston’s article on domestic violence (July 13) was sexist and misandristic in the way it ignored female violence and left African male victims and their children invisible. A recent 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire, which included several African nations, found female students initiate partner violence as often as male students, and controlling behaviour exists equally in perpetrators of both sexes. — Marc E Angelucci, Los Angeles Chapter, National Coalition of Free Men
![]()
The big question for Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa is what has happened to the money allocated to sport, culture and charities before the lottery fiasco? The Hermanus Whale Festival, like hundreds of other causes, was allocated approved funding last year and we are still waiting for payment. — Glynis van Rooyen, executive chairperson, Hermanus Whale Festival
![]()
The strike is over; long live the spirit of no surrender, long live! The government should pay decent salaries to attract and keep competent workers; institute a proper performance management system instead of the ad hoc tinkering of quasi-evaluation exercises; act decisively and promptly against corruption; and depoliticise senior appointments by using a standard competence assessment tool. — Sekgopha Mako, Springs
![]()
The annual tally of murders in the UK is under 1 000 per annum, not under 100 as stated in your editorial of July 6. — Nick Hamer, Grahamstown