Nutritionist Pierre Dukan.
Curiouser and curiouser
Because Judge Edwin Cameron is a celebrated South African and judicial pillar, I was curious to read Cameron and the caring state in the Mail & Guardian Law Review.
But my curiosity turned to dismay. He was said to be one of the “11 arbiters of a Constitution that is considered the most progressive on Earth”! Hyperbole runs high in South Africa.
So Cameron is partly responsible for the right to strike being a right, but nowhere does the Constitution contain the right to work. Similarly, rights are eroded constitutionally by the inclusion of “fair discrimination” – which is nonsense. Fair discrimination is a thinly veiled racist policy claiming to redress the balance of the past.
At least Cameron states that there were poor white people before 1994, unlike the state broadcaster, which produced a diatribe claiming that all whites were privileged. There is a daily stream of invective similar to pre-1994 apartheid propaganda.
I am gobsmacked by Cameron’s comments about his chief justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, particularly because he has acted as his church’s ambassador in another country.
It’s a wonderful wish that South Africans have a future that is “egalitarian and provides dignity for every citizen”. Sadly, this will not happen while the public purse is being emptied faster than it is being filled.
The Constitution is ignored or interpreted incorrectly by poorly educated politicians, who continue to lambaste the past so that few people will realise that the present has been stolen.
If Cameron was “the ordinary man in the street”, he might revise the idea that justice is open to all.
His insistence that FW de Klerk should apologise could be a precedent. I wonder if he has insisted the same regarding several ANC ministers and officials who have steadfastly remained in office after breaking the law and the Constitution? – TJ Morgan
Don’t use Meyiwa to score points
The senseless killing of soccer star Senzo Meyiwa should not be hijacked by political spin. That is the opposite of respect and decency.
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula foams at the mouth, and the South African Football Association boss Danny Jordaan follows.
And the ANC, through its master’s voice Zizi Kodwa, tries to score political points.
Mbalula talks about monuments. Jordaan and the ANC talk about gun control as though they had discovered something new. Jordaan speaks about a law to ban illegal guns. Why would you need a legislative initiative against something that is already illegal?
The ANC government promised years ago that it would produce a high-tech gun register. Nothing came of it. It’s all just hot air.
The gun issue is about good policing and fighting corruption in the police and the military, where weapons are being sold to gangsters. It’s about stopping the rot as corrupt officials sell gun licences to the highest bidder.
We don’t need monuments. That does nothing about the bloodshed. We need concrete action on the ground against illegal guns and related corruption. Instead of using Meyiwa’s death to score political points, the ANC should realise it has been in power for 20 years and, during that time, gun crime has painted this nation blood red. – Theo Martinez, Johannesburg
Bosses with dodgy qualifications may be easy to control
What are we teaching our children in this country? Children are told they should not involve themselves with any wrongdoing and, if they have done wrong, they should admit it; in some cases, accept being punished.
If someone has lied, that person ought to confess and ask for forgiveness.
Lying and deceiving are rotten things and unacceptable in all societies. We cannot become a nation of cheats, liars and thieves.
I am concerned about the many high-ranking officials who have submitted CVs with qualifications they do not have (SABC chair failed badly at Unisa).
The public protector found that SABC chief Hlaudi Motsoeneng wrongfully claimed to have passed matric. “Dr” Pallo Jordan was exposed for pretending to have an academic qualification he did not have.
SABC board chair Ellen Tshabalala claimed to have a BCom and a postgraduate certificate. Unisa acknowledges she was a student – but said that she failed her modules.
And these are not the only perpetrators who have been exposed. Remember former minister Sicelo Shiceka, who claimed to have a master’s degree in political economy from the University of the Free State?
The late Shiceka also arranged that Madibeng municipality in North West provide his girlfriend Nana Masithela with a position as chief financial officer. Then Masithela was dismissed for pretending to have an MBA.
A Tshwane University of Technology rector was dismissed for having an unrecognised doctorate. South African Airways chairperson Dudu Myeni listed a degree in administration as one of her qualifications when she was appointed in 2009, but this was merely a degree she had hoped to obtain.
Must we now assume that registering for a course means a qualification to other people?
Is there is a deliberate ploy to appoint dodgy characters to high offices, a move that will eventually destroy this country? Lying about qualifications undermines the efforts of honest and hard-working individuals. It compromises the integrity of our tertiary institutions.
Is it because, if individuals with dodgy qualifications are appointed, they are compromised and thus easy to control and manipulate?
We must resist this corruption of our moral values. – Bennet Joko, PAC deputy secretary general