Suffering also taking place in other countries

THE letter, “Vote with your conscience,” the POST, April 17-24, by Nelson Puckree, refers.

Much of what he says about politicians in this country is true. But they apply much more to the ANC and the EFF, both of which are vocal about Palestine.

Does Puckree want us to vote for one of these parties? And this, too, based on foreign policy?

I live in this country, my homeland, and am more concerned about the 20 million who go to bed hungry daily, the 15 000 kidnappings annually, the thousands murdered, raped or who are victims of hijackings, robberies, home intrusions and break-ins, malnutrition, poor health care at state-run hospitals, dysfunctional educational institutions, unemployment, lack of service delivery and so on – the list is endless.

What is happening in this country as far as human suffering goes, is far more important, especially during election time.

And what about the suffering and slaughtering of millions taking place in other parts of the continent – Sudan, Mozambique, Ethiopia and so on? They impact our country greatly.

Palestine is but one of many countries enduring pain and suffering caused by war. But to make it the pivotal issue of our national election is illogical. The innocent victims won’t be saved by how we vote.

In any case, I, for one, have not forgotten and never will forget the insult to the Indian community by the ANC during the 2007 road renaming fiasco.

For people like Puckree, here is a reminder: The community wanted Grey Street to be named after Dr Monty Naicker, who worked and died in the Grey Street complex, serving the poor and disempowered.

That a Transvaal Indian Congress member (Yusuf Dadoo) took precedence over someone from the Natal Indian Congress for a street name in

Durban was a slap in the face, because no other person should have been preferred above Naicker.

According to an article in the Sunday Tribune Herald (March 11, 2007): “ANC stalwarts Billy Nair and Swaminathan SK Gounden, together with former South African Ambassador to Italy, Khorshed Ginwala, had submitted that Grey /Broad streets be named after Naicker because of his NIC connections.”

That request was ignored. Callers to the Lotus FM programme, Newsbreak Talk, on May 6, 2007, were vociferous in their condemnation of plans to rename Higginson Highway after an Arab, Yasser Arafat, especially, after claims by the ANC that names of “local heroes” would be used.

Callers saw it as an insult to Indians again.

Also noteworthy is the fact that on April 28, 2007, Zandile Gumede, as a guest on Lotus FM’s Newsbreak phone-in programme, insisted that the proposed names were submitted by individuals or organisations from the “community”.

But which individual/s or organisation/s submitted Arafat’s name for Higginson’s Highway or Dadoo’s name for the Grey Street complex could not be ascertained, because she was not prepared to divulge that information.

I subsequently read that it was Amichand Rajbansi who persuaded the ANC to drop the name change of Higginson Highway because of the community’s vehement opposition to the proposed name.

But one does not need to be a rocket scientist to surmise what clinched the deal about Grey Street, given the subsequent revelations about the eThekwini Municipality in the years that followed.