/ 2 November 2018

Letters to the editor: November 2 to 8

Patricia de Lille announced on Wednesday that she was finally parting ways with her adopted party and resigning as Cape Town’s mayor
Patricia de Lille announced on Wednesday that she was finally parting ways with her adopted party and resigning as Cape Town’s mayor, so voters now face another confusing choice. (David Harrison/M&G)

DA faces wind of change

The latest charge against Patricia de Lille seems to be more a witch hunt than an exercise to seek justice. Why didn’t the Democratic Alliance let her go quietly instead of choosing a path of self-destruction? 

Is the DA afraid that De Lille is going to revive the Independent Democrats and steal the thunder from the DA in the Western Cape? By the looks of things, the Western Cape might be run by a coalition government formed by the ID and the ANC.

In coalition governments, parties play musical chairs, changing their allegiance from one party to the other, leaving the confused citizens to suffer through poor governance.

If you are as confused as I am about which party to vote for in the next election, who can blame us?

Politicians earn enough, so they should stop being greedy and corrupt, and they should focus on doing what they were elected for: they should deal with the country’s problems and stop stealing taxpayers’ money to bankrupt the country. — Ellapen Rapiti

■ The events in the City of Cape Town regarding the De Lille matter have clearly shown us that the DA is failing to deal with its internal matters and this has affected the party negatively. They have lost Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality and where they are leading now there are no guarantees that they will survive.

In Cape Town, they have just lost five more councillors, one of whom was a chief whip of the DA. Chances are there might be more to follow.

The fact of the matter is that these people are not ready to govern because they can’t even resolve internal matters in the best interests of the party. Whatever decision they take always leads to disaster.

Now the DA has another job to do and that is to lobby the communities of the five councillors who resigned because these former DA members have vowed to campaign against the party in their respective wards. The wind of change is coming to the Cape Town Metro. — Tom Mhlanga, Braamfontein


Stand up to hatred by standing together

“For death had come through our windows into our strongholds.” — Jeremiah 9:20.

All the Jewish people, together with all good and decent people, feel great pain over the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We grieve with the families of those who were murdered and send our wishes of recovery to those who were wounded.

This hate crime was performed by an individual, but it has a wider context, aiming to spread fear and distress, to keep apart the different groups that build society and to try to reinstall an old order.

Here in South Africa, we remember well what the outcomes are of such an ideology that tries to keep society in constant dread, refusing to recognise our obvious shared human heritage. Clearly, we are far away from perfection, but South Africa has long moved away from those notions. In a way, the whole dispensation of the new South Africa is intended to ensure that our different communities could come together to live in equality, prosperity and peace.

Our answer to this act of hate will be to fortify our efforts to reach out to one another. We call upon all educators, religious and community leaders to invest in creating an atmosphere of respect, where all voices are heard and appreciated and where diversity is acknowledged as a source of strength.

Though our heart is full of sadness today, we put our trust in the Eternal One, whose wisdom is beyond our grasp. We pray that out of this hard moment shall come forth maturity and understanding, fulfilling the words of the prophet: “They shall not hurt nor harm My holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with knowing the Eternal, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 9:11). — Rabbi Sa’ar Shaked, the South African Association of Progressive Rabbis


Israel kills, but it’s not called terrorism

The most powerful military force in the Middle East faces an impoverished and essentially unarmed population. In the most brutal and cowardly fashion, it is slaughtering civilians who have faced an ­economic siege, the destruction of their livelihoods, repeated bombardments and military assaults over the past 11 years.

Of the 197 killed by Israeli forces since the protests began, a staggering number are children— about 44, or one-quarter of the total.

The nature of their injuries shows that Israeli soldiers are using high-velocity military weapons.

Imagine what the response would be if Palestinians assembled snipers on the border with Israel and shot and killed unarmed Israeli ­protesters.

The fact that the Israeli military’s killing of Palestinian protesters isn’t considered terrorism shows the vicious double standard held by those shaping the policies and narratives in this situation: Israelis and Americans are seen as human beings. Palestinians are not. — Naushad Ally Ismail, Durban