/ 24 March 2017

Letters to the editor: March 24 to 30 2017

Legacy: Colonialism’s violence is depicted in Charles Edwin Fripp’s 'The Battle of Isandlwana' in 1879.
Legacy: Colonialism’s violence is depicted in Charles Edwin Fripp’s 'The Battle of Isandlwana' in 1879.

Colonialism, tribalism and now a corrupt state

Just as you cannot talk about the light without talking about the dark, you cannot talk about colonialism without talking about tribalism. The one has departed (although it left a legacy) but the other persists, playing a significant role in corruption and in retarding development in the feudal quagmire that is Africa.

Unfortunately, there are things too emotive for most to see reason or understand, and colonialism and tribalism are among them.

So when I hear my brothers talking about “decolonised education”, for example, they come across as either too ignorant or too proud to realise the negative effects of tribalism (or feudal Africa), which aided and abetted slavery, for example, and still works as a dark and corrupt force keeping Africa from developing. I think the African tribal chiefs and monarchs were worse than the European monarchs who partook in colonisation.

What is seldom acknowledged by the emotional and often immature many when debating colonisation is any negatives about African tribalism and how the tribal chiefs sold their own people to the slave traders (European colonisers) as commodities. This was and still is worse than the bad part of colonisation.

So while I too think Helen Zille’s tweet was insensitive and I too do not condone the negatives of colonisation – which was largely about greedy European monarchs competing for world power, wealth and dominions – I too cannot condone the negatives of tribalism that still persist.

The irony is that Zille has more struggle credentials than most, but because she is a white female in a very touchy and blinded, male-dominated and hyper-political South Africa, she is taken out of context and vilified.

Unfortunately, few black Africans (traditionalist or tribalist) will ever acknowledge any positive legacy that may persist from colonial times.

Then you read day after day how the ANC is stealing the futures of all South Africans with their rampant corruption. It is time for South Africans to mature and to understand. – Sibusiso Dube, Vosloorus


Shining a light on Swaziland’s plight

Prega Govender’s story Swazi and Mozambican migrant scholars flock to border towns reflects my own experience.

I am a Swazi male, a victim of the situation in Swaziland where, under the Tinkhundla government, education is expensive and jobs are scarce.

I was forced to come to South Africa to seek greener pastures after I was rejected by the system in Swaziland. What is happening in Swaziland is appalling and it is a pity no one seems to care.

I am so very happy that the Mail & Guardian took the time to publish this article.

The fact of the matter is that Swazi people now depend in South Africa for survival. Many Swazi people work in South African mines and farms and are very much underpaid. We are a rejected nation. While the king and his family live a lavish life, the people struggle for basic services. – Philani Phumlani Nkambule, Pretoria


Call the epoch what it is

I appreciate the way Sipho Kings shifts the discourse away from conservative conservationist “plant the rhino, stop the ugly wind farm” to the environment being seen to include everything, with people at the heart of environmental justice (Planet of the Humans ends badly).

Despite many conservationists bleating on about humankind being a plague, it is always correct to say that overconsumption by a wealthy minority is the real plague. Academia is also complicit by naming the current epoch “the Anthropocene”. This further engenders that the “masses of humanity” are killing the planet.

Given that the burning of fossil fuels marks the beginning of this epoch, would it not be more accurate to name it “the Capitalocene”? – Muna Lakhani, Cape Town


President needs his delinquent minister

The social grants debacle sadly reveals once again the lack of accountability shown by this government and, by default, the ANC as ruling party (Dlamini’s day of reckoning draws closer).

They are not legally or politically accountable.

President Jacob Zuma, whom the Constitutional Court ruled broke his oath of office, should now take leadership and fire Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, whom the same court described as grossly incompetent.

But he won’t. Zuma has no respect for the rule of law. He doesn’t like demo-cratic, institutional oversight. He needs Dlamini and her ANC Women’s League as part of his power games to put his ex-wife in Luthuli House in December and in the Union Buildings in 2019.

The social grants debacle has shown once again that cadre deployment, as part of political survival planning, is the only show in town. Not running the state, not leading the nation, not delivering services, not managing, not building a stronger institutional democracy.

It is crudeness in its most brutal and selfish form. – Theo Martinez, Jo’burg


Map of legal places for abortion

It is wonderful that, after a couple of years of drought, the Mail & Guardian is writing about abortion again; and, in 2017, noting the reproductive injustice that women endure. The article this week takes the National Department of Health’s database of designated facilities and maps it over a map of South Africa. Given that the health department does not give any information on abortion on its website, this is welcome – lack of information further perpetuates abortion stigma.

We note, however, that the database was not checked and that the information in the M&G graphic is old, some of it five years old. By providing poor information on abortion we make it difficult for women, and in particular poor and black women, to access services.

Service providers, activists and women are not pleased, because this directly affects the work they do. It is the responsibility of government to provide accurate information. They do not. Working on abortion is political and stigmatised. If journalists are going to provide information they need to fact check and do it properly and work in partnerships. Women indeed deserve better. We hope that in future there could be more collaborative efforts in making this great initiative work. – Marion Stevens, Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition

Bhekisisa replies:

In February, Bhekisisa received a list of abortion providers from the national health department as part of a story on the availability of safe abortions in South Africa. The department admitted that this list was out of date and that the most recent information was only available at district level.

In an effort to fill the gap in information accessible to the public on abortion service providers, Bhekisisa reporters liaised with each provincial health department to obtain lists of government facilities providing abortions. Each department was contacted in writing and their responses were also provided in writing. In addition to this, Bhekisisa obtained clarifications on unclear responses via phone calls.

Our #SizaMap is based on this information. Because there are concerns about the accuracy of the provincial health departments’ information, Bhekisisa has decided to go a step further: we are in the process of contacting each of the 259 facilities on the map to verify the status of service and update the map accordingly.

In the absence of publicly accessible information on abortion services, Bhekisisa remains committed to help to make such data easier to obtain. To the best of our knowledge, no reproductive organisation has attempted to provide such a service.