I disagree. It is a very simple matter to anyone with an eye on the future. ("DA has not decided on fracking", Letters, January 18)
It is about inevitable water scarcity because of climate change, especially in an increasingly arid South Africa, and in effect poisoning millions of litres of water and then trying to dispose of them without poisoning many more.
It is about trusting companies that have routinely polluted, lied and evaded international laws over not touching their oily, apartheid-stained track records with a barge pole. It is about understanding that it has proved very difficult, if not impossible, to regulate and police the dumping of toxic waste in South Africa's look-the-other-way culture in the past.
So, why trust that things might be different with fracking? How easy would it be to dump truly nasty, deadly stuff in the cash-strapped back of beyond?
What about the whole issue of burning fossil fuels? We are moving away from that stuff, remember? "Business as usual" has, apparently, not been an option for some time and any politician kowtowing to big oil and not pushing renewables cannot claim to be interested in our children's future.
Is this not proof, once again, that you simply cannot trust political parties to do the right thing? Certainly, they will not if it goes against the kind of short-term job/vote creation that will most surely destroy our environment in the long term. Cannot these parties, the ANC as well as the DA, see beyond their next two political terms?
The DA, you would be foolish to support fracking in any shape or form. I for one will be all over you like an avalanche of toxic sludge if you do. – Neil Goodwin, Cape Town