Community anger: The ANC's policy regarding land and basic amenities has made the rich richer and the poor
The ANC has let us down
Capping land ownership is not the same as land redistribution. How does one cap land for landless people? African land was stolen by Europeans through colonialism and apartheid, and today it is the neoliberal policies of the ANC that are failing to redistribute land to the rightful owners.
If my maths still serves me, 12 000 hectares is equal to 120km squared. This is a lot of land for one person. But it does not address the policy of willing buyer and willing seller, which allows thieves to sell the property back to the people whose land was stolen. The ANC is colluding with apartheid thieves. The United Front and the Economic Freedom Fighters are correct to argue for land appropriation without compensation. The appropriation should not be limited to European settlers but should be extended to apartheid collaborators as well.
The ANC is only talking about land now that the people are becoming determined to occupy land for housing, and because the EFF and the UF are talking about returning the land to the rightful owners.
We have lost hope in the ANC as the liberation movement that would liberate the people. The principle of land ownership in the ANC’s view is clear – it’s land for cronies and apartheid thieves. The masses will never get land under an ANC government.
During the apartheid era, there was 20% company tax, and that money was used by the apartheid government to protect and maintain white superiority.
Today we need to reintroduce that 20% company tax, which was dropped by the Thabo Mbeki regime in the name of encouraging investment in South Africa – though we did not see that investment curbing unemployment and poverty.
That money could be used to build houses for the masses and pay a basic income grant to the unemployed.
All Mbeki did was to make rich apartheid monopoly capitalists richer and the poor masses poorer. To hell with the ANC’s neoliberal land policy. We want land, houses and jobs, now. – Mhlobo Gunguluzi, Guguletu
Laziness or sinister M&G agenda?
In Eight ways to fix our water woes, Sipho Kings and Sarah Wild failed the paper and the South African Press Code by making assertions that are not truthful, accurate, fair and balanced.
The following statement is not supported by the facts: “The department of water affairs has been unable to achieve a clean audit and is racked by corruption scandals, starting at the very top. It has been run by an acting director general for half a decade, thanks to a succession of directors general being suspended.”
The facts are that I am the current director general, with a five-year contract from January?3 2012 to January?2 2017. I report to the minister, so I assume I am at the top of the organisational hierarchy, but I am not corrupt. I am not under suspension. I am unaware of any acting director general running the department for half a decade.
Why these journalists made such sweeping statements, not saying what these scandals are or giving the names of those affected, baffles me. Is it laziness or a sinister agenda? I was not contacted before publication.
I can safely say that those who know me and my long, unblemished record in the water sector will know that I cannot be associated with corruption. On the contrary, I have suffered for standing for what is right. I expect the paper to check its facts, set the record straight and apologise for the harm done. – Maxwell Sirenya
•?Editor’s note: Sirenya and his predecessor, Pam Yako, were both suspended for a time. Internal charges against Sirenya were dropped by the new minister.
Mashaba is chief among the losers
Let’s face the truth; Bafana Bafana have become an embarrassment to our nation (Mashaba must shake down a bit). They warrant the “bunch of losers” tag given to them by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.
It would be foolish for the South African Football Association (Safa), and South Africans generally, to ignore our national team’s dismal group-stage exit from the 2015 African Nations Cup (Afcon) in Equatorial Guinea by hiding behind the “we are building” statement. There was “no commissioned mandate for Shakes Mashaba”? That’s hogwash.
When Mashaba was appointed as head coach of our national team, I do not think Safa was saying: “Look, coach, you are the only one who has a licence to lose until the 2018 World Cup in Russia.” No!
We can all agree that we wanted a coach who could build a team that could compete on the African continent and in the rest of the world, up to Russia 2018 and beyond. Almost all the teams who competed in Afcon had players in the same age bracket as Bafana Bafana, but they held on and showed character, and showed that they can compete with the rest of the world. Those teams had a mixture of experienced and younger players.
Mashaba and his technical team must submit a comprehensive report as to why they failed at Afcon. We still do not even know why talented players such as Thulani Serero were left out, except the nonsense uttered by Mashaba that there were better players than him. Really? What kind of a coach can say that about a player?
We also want to know why better players such as Tsepo Masilela, Kamohelo Mokotjo and Moeketsi Sekola were omitted, but Mashaba opted for Bongani Ndulula, who has scored fewer than 10 goals since turning professional in 2009.
What kind of a nation are we when our senior national technical team does not account for, or cannot be brought to book for, such a paltry performance – in the name of development? If our national team is a development faculty, then why do we have levels such as the under-21s, under-23s, under-17s and below? Bafana Bafana is not a development faculty – it’s the national team. – Thami Tiki, Polokwane