Painfully or not, in handcuffs if necessary, Zuma must go
The talk about not humiliating President Jacob Zuma while he exits is rich, coming from his fellow ANC travellers.
Just ask Pravin Gordhan how he was humiliated by President Zuma while on an investor road show in London.
It grates me and many of my fellow South Africans to call him our president. He has disgraced himself, his family and fellow citizens by his misdeeds.
There isn’t anyone willing to defend him any more, except for his hard core of corrupt supporters.
Here I include Jessie Duarte and Ace Magashule, who I can only term rogue and maverick members of the ANC’s top six.
Here are two people who supported and nurtured him while the president was conducting his nefarious deeds.
Zuma has disgraced his office, sold the country to the Guptas, decimated our currency and kicked out of his cabinet good, honest people for no good reason .
He faces 783 charges of corruption and we are told we must not humiliate him!
He has humiliated himself and in the process hurt millions of decent, lawabiding citizens.
Whatever the humiliation — be it handcuffs or otherwise — will be just deserts for him.
Paks Pakiriy, Durban North
Unsavoury president
In their attempt to manage the delicate equilibrium between Zuma as an individual and the greater good of the country, the ANC has ultimately created an unsavoury and disconcerting precedent — the vested power of a single individual clearly trumps the collective democratic order that we so religiously defend.
Zuma must go, own volition or not. He must simply go!
Narendh Ganesh, Durban North
Exile them to soulless Dubai
Ol’ MacBuffalo should give Zuma plus all his wives and offspring one-way tickets to Dubai, a truly horrible place with no soul whatsoever.
His visits home should be at the discretion of the South African Department of International Relations; not too often please.
Nkandla should be subject to a compulsory purchase order (we paid for it, after all). Turn it into a hospital, school or community centre — or all three; it’s big enough.
Mike McDonnell, Knysna
Ban the Guptas from these shores
Surely it is high time the Guptas were deported and banned from South Africa.
Their insatiable greed to amass vast fortunes through illegal means makes the mind boggle.
All their assets should be instantly frozen, and sold to repay the citizens of this country with the billions of rands they have extorted.
They found easy pickings among gullible, dishonest government senior officials and the same throughout the parastatals, and made a mockery of South Africa and the ANC.
BR Charsley
Constituency system not perfect
Barney Mthombothi argues for direct voter election of MPs, “Wind of change sweeping through parliament has brought out the best in MPs” (February 4).
But we must never forget that the constituency system allowed the National Party to impose apartheid on this country and it also kept it in power for 48 years.
Moreover, with the exception of a very few independents, MPs were nominated by political parties and still had to toe the party line.
What we need is a combination of constituencies and proportional representation. The easiest way to do this is to have half the seats in parliament elected per constituency and the other half elected from party lists.
Ian Jayes, Weltevreden Park
Put Steinhoff’s CAs under oath
The continued failure of Steinhoff International to provide any meaningful information about the nature or amount of the “accounting errors” involved is incomprehensible.
So far only Markus Jooste has been blamed but it would not surprise me if those who knew about the “errors” numbered in the hundreds.
It is my opinion that, if these are accounting errors, then accountants throughout the organisation knew of them. They had to create and record them.
To get a good idea of the amount and location of the “errors”, all that is necessary is for the investigators to ask the accountants under oath, “How much and where?”
The resulting amounts, although not precise, will be enough to enable others to assess the magnitude of the problem and make decisions accordingly.
JG Ragsale
Water crisis may dry up DA support
The DA might well find it has “tariffed” itself out of government in Cape Town and possibly the Western Cape come the next elections.
In the eyes of a great many, the DA’s handling of the water crisis has been a tale of far too little, far too late, and missed opportunities, such as desalination.
Combine that with the central government’s apparent unwillingness to make any meaningful contribution to solving the crisis — the ANC has never forgiven the voters of the Western Cape and Cape Town for voting it out — and we end up in the present mess.
Who knows what the alternative is, but possibly for many it might not be the DA. Rod Baker, Fish Hoek
Write to PO Box 1742, Saxonwold 2132; SMS 33662; e-mail: tellus@sundaytimes.co.za; Fax: 011 280 5150 All mail should be accompanied by a street address and daytime telephone number. The Editor reserves the right to cut letters