Students missing in action over graft
The DA leadership is hypocritical
STILL fresh in our memories are the scenes from the mass action taken by students during the #Feesmustfall campaign.
No matter one’s personal take on their cause, the determination and courage of the students in the face of rubber bullets, stun grenades and gas canisters was impressive, to say the least.
They left no doubt that they meant business and, when it became evident that they could not be ignored indefinitely, in came Blade Nzimande.
Under pressure to earn his keep as minister of higher education, he had no alternative but to face the students head-on. Not an unduly onerous task since, for once, there was an opportunity for a politician to tell at least a partial truth. There simply isn’t enough money available was all he had to tell them.
Understandably, the students would have set about trying to establish why this was the case. After all, this is supposedly a country endowed with considerable wealth.
In their quest for clarity on the matter, they would have had to be either blind or plain stupid not to have concluded that one of the major contributing factors was that there were people out there who were looting the country’s coffers.
So today the students know full well that Nzimande is not quite the Honest Joe he made himself out to be and that what he should have told them was that not only was there no money, but that the reason for that was large amounts of money were being stolen and the identities of the thieves were well known.
Roll forward some months and we now have mass action calling for the suspected kingpin of this grand theft of funds to be brought to book. And who do you think has gone missing in action? None other than our brave students.
View the extensive footage on the recent marches and the absence of any collective student presence becomes immediately apparent. Those people who were not so long ago fearlessly standing up on podiums all over the country have simply disappeared.
Considering the extent to which students are affected by the corruption problem, their silence and absence from the most recent marches is indeed curious.
To risk life and limb in pursuit of funds for their education and to then just lie down and roll over when they discover that the funds will not be forthcoming because they are being stolen, is unfathomable. The reason for their absence and silence remains unclear, but it had better be a good one because it is going to cost them and their children dearly.
By failing to stand up and be counted now, they are complicit in the transfer of the culture of corruption from one generation to the next, and it is doubtful there are many who will relish the thought of one day having to tell their child the reason he or she is hungry and uneducated is because in 2017, as a student, they failed their country. By their silence, the student population is condoning the destruction of their country. GLYNN WILLIAMS
Westville I RESPOND to your recent front page article on the prosecution of Helen Zille (Sunday Tribune, April 16).
Nowadays, I find it quite a challenge being a member of the white race group in South Africa. We are, after all, a product of our heritage.
The challenge is to remain calm in the face of what appears to be a rising tide of anti-white sentiment and prejudice.
It’s only natural that ongoing, very public, incitement by government at all levels, and its coterie of associates, will generate anxiety.
How sad it is to see the DA, our one hope for a decent future, irresponsibly joining the racist chorus line, and raising the temperature at such a time.
What else is one to make of the vindictive pursuit of Helen Zille (like Diane Kohler Barnard before her) on trumped up charges?
The lady’s credentials in opposing racial oppression over the years are beyond question, so why the witch-hunt?
It seems the DA’S black leadership figures are always ready to pounce, desperate to be first in the denouncement queue, playing the race card, in the hope of winning votes, exactly like the ANC.
Personally, I think Mmusi Maimane’s selective morality is an insult to voters, regardless of their colour.
Why, for instance, has the DA not launched a campaign of denigration against their own MEC for Human Settlements, one Bonginkosi Madikizela?
After all, the charming Madikizela recently slated his leader, Maimane, as “not being black enough because he is married to a white woman”, and added that “he cannot be surrounded by white people”.
Now, one would think that this is particularly nasty, highly personal, racist slander, warranting instant dismissal.
But what happened? Lo and behold, Madikizela has just been appointed DA provincial leader for the Western Cape. Viva hypocrisy! Forgive the defensiveness, but wouldn’t it be instructive to debate the issue of colonialism and look at the benefits that liberation and African nationalist ideology have brought to our continent.
And while we are about it, perhaps someone can explain the shameful, shocking scenes of thousands of African citizens drowning in the Mediterranean, desperately trying to get to Europe, to countries governed by colonialist offspring?
JEFF VAN BELKUM Warner Beach