Readers’Views

David Jones has saved me from walking naked in the street

I do not know how old J Nadin and Lorraine Stewart are, but as far as I am concerned, they are way off the mark about David Jones clothes from Woolworths — “‘Boring’ David Jones clothes are not what South Africans want” (Readers’ Views, February 4).

I have had the complete opposite experience, having bought no clothing from Woolworths in many years. Now I have bought many things recently, which has saved me from walking naked in the street just in time. And guess what — they were all the David Jones label.

I cannot abide these modern shops with their blaring music, couldn’tcare-less assistants (what they are hired to assist with beats me) and clothes suitable only for young people with very modern fashion ideas.

Go and shop elsewhere, thanks very much, and leave the decent stuff for us oldies — at least we have something to choose from now, as opposed to nothing. Long live Woolies and the David Jones label.

Marion West (age 76), Johannesburg

Little confidence in Gigaba

The article “Gigaba presses ahead with probe into SARS — and the uncollected R50.8bn” (February 4) provides false optimism.

With Malusi Gigaba’s record as a minister in previous portfolios it is unlikely that anything positive will be unearthed. Unfortunately he hasn’t the strength of personality to demand answers or take tough decisions.

His handling of SAA is a case in point, as was his tenure as minister of home affairs. Both were ridden with corruption and incompetent management.

The missing SARS collection is probably due to faulty mathematics and poor management, rather than rampant corruption.

Despite the criminal misuse of state resources, we have grown immune to the daily revelations of blatant corruption, which has denied the poor a decent life, the jobless hope, and the country a promising future.

It is President Jacob Zuma who needs to answer for the role he played — joined by his cronies — in bringing South Africa to the verge of a failed state, and refund the National Treasury with many billions of their ill-gotten gains.

Ted O’Connor, Johannesburg

Dire warning of wars over water

With reference to Samantha EnslinPayne’s column “Less carping, more conserving of water” (January 21), Mexico City is also built on an aquifer, and it is crumbling.

Too many people, not enough resources to go around.

How many times have you heard that ad by the Rose Foundation: “The next world war will be fought over water . . .” And now here we are.

Mark Crozier, on businesslive

The days of a “Big Brother” government, and expectations of government, are gone — and that has less to do with the total incompetence over the past decade of this ANC government (who remembers Kader Asmal when he was minister of water affairs, and his very prescient warnings?) and far more to do with global warming and climate change. Jon Quirk, on businesslive