Transform healthcare to pull off NHI

ICANNOT agree more with our hard-working Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, on “Better healthcare for all — not just the rich” (June 26). Those who are against national health insurance have obviously vested interests in the healthcare status quo.

Go on, minister, and implement the NHI as soon as yesterday with the assurance that you have the full support of an overwhelming majority of the poor, the working class and the so-called middle class.

We cannot have a situation in which we are told, on a daily basis, that we are equal as citizens of this country when in reality we are not.

Decommodify healthcare and education so that the notion of being free makes sense to all and not just the privileged.

However, minister, it will go a long way and possibly silence the critics of the NHI if the state of our public clinics and hospitals was revisited and radically improved in terms of satisfied staffing, ensuring professionalism, availability of medicines and improvement of infrastructure. — Joseph B Gumbi, Pietermaritzburg

V&A ‘built’ by ANC? Hardly

“MAYOR puts in big tackles to fix city that lost its way” (July 3) refers.

I heard about the V&A Waterfront way back in 1992 while I was in high school, and the ANC wasn’t in power.

You quote Danny Jordaan as saying of Cape Town: “But the DA has not put a single brick into those. Nothing. Even the Waterfront was created by the ANC.”

Yeah, right. In 1984 Cape Town mayor Sol Kreiner formed the Waterfront steering committee. V&A Waterfront (Pty) Ltd was formed in 1988 as a subsidiary of Transnet and the Waterfront’s construction began in 1989. It is safe to say Kreiner was not an ANC-deployed cadre because the party was still illegal back then, never mind in power, so how could Jordaan claim such nonsense and Carlos Amato allow it to go unchallenged? — Mircea Negres, Port Elizabeth

Bursting at the seams

“FEARFUL Britain counts the cost of Cameron’s disastrous wager” (July 3) refers. Barney Mthombothi is unfair to the British when he characterises the disastrous Brexit vote as fuelled mainly by xenophobic aversion to immigrants.

There were other, less morally odious motivations, chief among them a desire for legislative autonomy and an escape from paying financial dues to the EU. And indeed, not all those desirous of reducing immigration numbers were motivated by xenophobia or racism: some voters simply wanted to decrease the number of new arrivals irrespective of their origin. It is a crowded island. — Julia Nicol, Cape Town

Say thanks to Britain, Barney

BARNEY Mthombothi should not underestimate the British. After 70 years of Nat and ANC rule their legacy is still the backbone of South Africa’s economy. — Mike, Gauteng

Poor Jacob joke

THE Sunday Times of July 3 was a thin laugh. Apart from the obsequious article about Danny Jordaan, we were treated to a bleat from the Zumas in “Zuma family pleads poverty” (July 3). When former president Thabo Mbeki sacked Jacob Zuma from the deputy president job, Zuma reportedly received R1-million from Nelson Mandela. Did anyone pay the donation tax? I doubt it. We should not forget that it was Mandela who persuaded Mbeki to take Zuma as his deputy.

According to many accounts, it is alleged that Zuma has never lived within his means and several sponsors have been identified.

The president has spent only taxpayers’ money in his efforts to keep out of the dock. His wives, et cetera, are funded by the state (I don’t know why), and his living is funded by the state. What has he done with the millions he’s collected in salary?

It’s not so funny when the questions are asked. — Tom Morgan, by e-mail

Turn big brother on all of us

ARN Franzen’s letter to the editor “Hold the ‘pros’ responsible” (July 3) refers. I have previously recommended a similar system of the public providing video evidence of traffic violations. However, this should apply to all misdemeanours.

Shooting red lights is becoming ever more common.

The evidence should stand up in a court of law; it provides assistance to understaffed traffic departments. And would help to minimise bribery. — Chris Adams, Winston Park

Just two, two much, man

“THE July by numbers” (July 3) states that two million tourists visited Durban for the Vodacom Durban July weekend.

My personal experience was that the restaurants in Florida Road were, if anything, less busy than normal on Friday and Saturday night, and likewise the Durban beachfront on Saturday and Sunday.

From where or who was this estimate derived, because it seems unrealistically high? Unless it is used to justify some form of city subsidy for the event? — Andrea, Durban

But what about the horses?

IN the Sunday Times of July 3, I saw a photo on page 1 and more photos on page 3 of fashions at the Durban July meeting. On the other hand I couldn’t find a single mention anywhere of which horse won the main race.

Did I miss something? —Tony Fisher, Boksburg

The heart of Johnson

I HAVE only now seen your obituary “Bill Johnson: Upstart riding ace who stole the heart of an Oppenheimer” (June 19).

Yes, he was irreverent and swore a lot. He was also an exceptionally kind man. I rode with Bill when I was a young, horse-crazy girl whose singleparent mother could not afford to let her ride more than once a week. Bill frequently “found” horses that just so happened to need exercising when I was there and I had an extra ride or two. We both knew that this was a kindness and there were plenty of other people who could have ridden the horses, but Bill never let me feel that he was offering me charity — he made it sound as though I was doing him the favour.

I think that your obituary did not show that side of the man and must have been very hurtful to those who loved him and those who experienced his generosity. — Lesley Lunn, Mnandi

Abortion is murder

PETER Bruce avers in “When interests take a back seat to values” (June 26) that working-class Americans turn their backs on Obamacare because their churches tell them abortion is a sin. But even those Americans who are atheist and pagan are not so stupid as not to be aware that abortion is the murder of a pre-born human being. —JH Goossens, Wapadrand