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SMSes are billed at R1 per 160 characters. Free SMSes do not apply and errors will be billed. Please supply your name HUISGENOOT KNEW

The Covid-19 shutdown is causing more havoc than the virus itself. This virus was in SA in 2003 already — on a Huisgenoot front page. Why the big fuss now and not then? Businesses are liquidating and closing doors. People are not able to work and poverty is climbing. No food parcels, no relief, no UIF payments. When is our president going to open his eyes and see it is not viable to shut SA when its so corrupt, and monies and funds are being stolen and not put aside for times like these. Our vendors cannot even afford to put a lockdown on debts, which is why the country is under financial pressure. And still to stop smokes and alcohol sales? I don’t drink and smoke, but it’s just ridiculous. So is releasing criminals but locking people up for walking on the beach. We are all being played like string puppets. They control our every move. Open the country completely and just keep safety measures of sanitising and masks in place.

Danielle

GIVE TAVERNS A BREAK

I have been asking myself the same question for a long time: “Where is the liquor board to help the taverners?”. We are told that we must apply for relief funding made available for affected small businesses, but it is not as easy as they say it is. We don’t pay UIF as it is not a prerequisite for us. And on all those application forms they state you must contribute to UIF. I applied for the Covid-19 term loan through my bank and that also was declined. The liquor board has all the info of licensed liquor traders from the licences that we pay every year. They could use that info with the banks to give us funding, because we have used every cent we had during lockdown. Is the liquor board going to expect us to pay the licence fee at the end of the year, knowing that we were not trading for I don’t know how many months?

Taverner

WATER USE IS RELATIVE

Mr Thompson, you are using 3kL a month for two adults — what about a family of eight people (four adults and four children)? If your children were still staying with you then surely you would be using much more! I know we must all use water sparingly.

Ratepayer

NOT A MASK IN SIGHT

On the corner of Fifth Avenue and Cape Road there was a taxi on Friday in which not a single passenger was wearing a mask. Not even the driver.

Gobsmacked

MAKANA JUDGMENT

About the recent Makana council judgment. The red light just went on for those municipalities that have allowed service delivery to collapse in the Eastern Cape. This means court action can successfully force the provincial government to dissolve nonperforming municipalities. The voters can then boot out failing parties in the fresh elections that follow. This is a great step forward in putting power back in the hands of the people.

Bobby Stevenson

SCHOOL PLAN DOOMED

To maintain social distancing, teachers will have to have staff meetings outside as the staff rooms would be too small. Much information sharing won’t be clear. Fewer than 20 pupils will fit into a classroom, so they will spend half the day waiting for their teachers to finish a class to come and teach them. The more teachers a matriculant has who cannot report for duty, the more disadvantaged he will be because it takes a teacher a couple of months to master a new syllabus. Teachers from other grades will have to learn the matric syllabus. It will be too late to benefit him. I just cannot see the education department plan working. Very little learning will take place, but the teacher will be overwhelmed running from class to class.

Teacher

AFRICA DAY NO CELEBRATION

On TV on Monday morning, the announcer wished everyone a Happy Africa Day. Huh? Is this not an oxymoron? Besides the presidents who have looted their countries into poverty and perpetual war, who in Africa can be happy?

H Frahm