Criticism of Springboks a classic case of sour grapes
I have to respond to Ian Hughes’s letter (Sunday Times, March 17) in which he complains about Springbok triumphs in more than one Rugby World Cup. His views are totally unbalanced.
First, he says our triumph in 1995 was due solely to local euphoria and homeground advantage. He conveniently forgets that two of the All Blacks’ triumphs were at home, in 1987 and 2011, and they have had only one success away, in 2015.
Second, he suggests our two defeats in the group games were fortuitous, and that in different circumstances we would not have won the cup.
He seems to be unaware that, in all sports like rugby, it’s the team that gets it right at the business end of the competition that takes the honours. It’s the last game that decides who is the champion.
Finally, Hughes says the All Blacks should not have had their first try disallowed, and that they should have been handed the trophy. Does he genuinely believe the All Blacks deserved to win, even though the VAR showed a clear knock-on at the lineout? Ian, bury your sour grapes. John Gilchrist, Benoni —
Sanction DA for this idiocy
The idiocy of DA leaders was revealed in Chris Barron’s Q&A with Emma Powell.
She kept backtracking and made a number of bizarre confessions, unable to rationalise her naive efforts to invite the US and other Western regimes to sully our national polls.
When she was asked to explain what “possessed” her to seek American assistance in our upcoming elections, she said her actions were “not about the US”.
The whole world is aware of the US’s putrid track record on regime change. Sometimes it is done through deceptive agendas, and at other times through the barrel of a gun. Powell cannot plead ignorance of these injustices.
On the question of engaging civil society organisations to protect our democracy rather than writing letters to the White House, she failed miserably to respond rationally.
Clearly, Powell made a grave error in sending an SOS to the US, which Barron suggests created the impression the IEC was not trustworthy enough to run a free and fair election.
The DA’s appeal to the US has impugned the reputation of the IEC. Accordingly, harsh sanctions should be imposed on the party for choosing conflict over cooperation after 30 years of peaceful elections. Iqbal Jassat, Media Review Network, — Johannesburg
Vote-rigging not impossible Chris Barron laid into Emma Powell, the DA’s shadow minister of international relations, for writing to Western governments and asking them to carefully watch the elections coming up in May. He assailed her for daring even to think our polls could be rigged.
What few seem to realise is that the SACP dominates the government in this country. Every member of the ANC’s national executive committee is a “comrade”. If the SACP-ANC alliance has such high regard for free and fair elections, why does the SACP not stand as an independent party in our polls? That fact alone shows it has no respect for democracy.
While I do not think the IEC is corrupt and controlled by the government, I think the DA has the right to “fire a shot across the bows” here, lest anyone in the SACPANC alliance be tempted to rig the elections.
Cicero said 2,000 years ago in Rome: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Nicholas Schofield, Irene —
Selling off the family silver
Barney Mthombothi’s column, “From proud symbol of reconciliation to scorned lapdog of murderous dictators” (March 17), was most insightful. Mthombothi refers to the ANC’s “clumsy effort to untangle the country from its historical ties with the West”.
This is precisely what the ANC has done with our mining industry. With the help of the country’s two largest mining houses — Gencor and Anglo American — much of our mining industry is now controlled by Brics countries. In short, we have sold off the family silver.
South African-owned Iscor was acquired by India’s ArcelorMittal, Samancor was sold to the world’s richest Croatian and has since been bought by Chinese investors, Highveld Steel and Vanadium was sold by Anglo to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, and Transalloys went to another Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg.
The ANC has also created an investment regime in the mining industry that is hostile to the West. Indeed, the South African mining industry has been rated as one of the 10 worst mining investment environments in the world.
ANC policies have destroyed much of our former world-class mining industry, as well as its downstream beneficiation and industrial projects. Ian Robinson, Parkhurst —