Hamas to blame for sacrificing innocent lives
DR AAYESHA Soni of the Media Review Network – a well-known anti-Israel lobby group – writing in this newspaper about a paramedic shot during the riots in Gaza recently (The Mercury, June 11) refers.
She calls the attempted breaking down of an international barrier and tens of thousands of incensed Palestinians invading a sovereign state a “peaceful protest”, whereas clear TV footage as well as press photographs show just the opposite.
The question perhaps that Soni might ask is why, after clear warnings from the Israeli authorities, Hamas leaders willingly send not
It’s time to get rid of burden that’s SAA
SINCE it was privatised in 1993, Qantas Airlines has been one of the most successful airlines in the world. Joao Sousa (“Qantas airline plan a winner”, appeared in The Star, The Mercury’s sister paper, June 8, 2018) explains that the Australian airline has been achieving record profits after a drastic turnaround strategy.
The fundamental reason that those in charge of the airline were able to assess its problems and implement an effective turnaround, was because it is private. Without government incompetence, meddling, and inefficiency, Qantas has become a symbol of pride for the Australian people. If only our government would do the same with SAA.
Mr Sousa writes that privatisation is not the answer to cure what ails SAA, but it is exactly what the airline needs. Once privatised, it will have no option but to improve, otherwise it will fold – the only reason it is still with us is that it can go to the government, year after year, and use taxpayers’ money to keep itself afloat. The last time SAA made a profit was in 2012; government support for SAA totals R46 billion, and there have been eight chief executives and at least nine turnaround plans. Whichever form of turnaround plan chief executive Vuyani Jarana promises will work this time, SAA will always be hamstrung because no government-run entity can contend with market forces and market demands.
While SAA could in theory be privatised, it may well be time to close it down completely. Current SAA employees can be paid out or upskilled. Instead of wasting more public funds, it is high time that the financial burden of SAA be lifted from the shoulders of the taxpayer.
CHRIS HATTINGH Free Market Foundation
Mkhwebane’s Zille tweets report flawed
EVEN a partisan observer who believes in the foundational values such as fairness and human dignity underpinning our constitution would gasp when he/she reads the public protector’s report on Helen Zille’s tweet extolling colonialism. That report is so flawed and full of holes that it outdoes even a tea strainer. And for that Zille has been thrown a lifeline courtesy of our bumbling public protector.
I hold no brief for Madame Zille who’s noted for her outrageous conduct and obnoxious tweets, but my position as a human rights-oriented legal practitioner informs me that this report seems to be politically motivated and it would be shot to shreds under review.
This thought springs to mind: Busisiwe Mkhwebane should resign as she seems to have no idea as to how the constitution works and only their operatives but thousands of women and children into a conflict zone with the knowledge that casualties will result.
What she won’t admit, and surely knows, is that it is the strategy of the Hamas leadership to have as many “innocent” Palestinians, especially children, killed.
Now perhaps Soni will also explain how such leaders would wantonly sacrifice their own people for a few international headlines.
This crass and callous strategy elicits no criticism from Soni, who as a medical doctor writing her piece talks about she lacks the basic understanding of her job. SABER AHMED JAZBHAY Newlands West
Where are doctors expected to work?
THE medical profession is one of the most sought after job segments in South Africa, but that may change soon. Like their engineering counterparts, doctors too are facing educated unemployment.
The department of health’s refusal to post qualified doctors across the country is taking a toll on our health care delivery system.
We should be gravely concerned about the creeping incidence of unemployment for medical doctors in the country. South Africa suffers from dreadful doctor to patient ratio. Several communities and districts in the country do not have medical doctors to serve them at all, while strained manpower languishes at home.
Having unemployed doctors does not make sense in a country where there is such a shortage of doctors.
It’s regrettable, though, that we have well-qualified, fully-trained and ready to work new graduates the value of human life.
Soni asks why Israel is not held to the same standards of morality as the rest of the world. Perhaps she should pose that same question to the Hamas leaders, who have never been guilty of any morality in this conflict.
Soni cites the Fourth Geneva Convention that affords special protection to medical personnel. That same convention protects wounded soldiers and soldiers held in captivity, something both Hamas and Hezbollah are guilty of ignoring.
That same convention also guarantees visits by the international who can’t give back to society because of factors outside their control. Doctors are currently unemployed after applying multiple times to the Department of Health to start their compulsory year of community service, but are either not appointed in time or those appointed are not paid in time.
Where does our minister of Health want doctors to work? The private sector does not want to hire them due to the lack of experience which is gained in the public sector, which refuses to hire them.
E PEEK Glenwood, Durban
At pains to fathom bank’s radio ad drift
CURRENTLY being aired on SAfm radio is an ad from FNB which waxes lyrical about some or other financial product, the name of which escapes me.
I ascribe this lapse in concentration to the fact that the ad opens with glowing references to three breeds of cows, each of which is followed by a moo.
The narrator then informs listeners that the FNB Cash Cow is the one they need, followed by another Red Cross to soldiers held in captivity – again ignored by these terror groups and by Soni, who is so quick to point fingers at the other side.
The good doctor then quotes the numbers of injured, as well as damaged ambulances, and questions the statistics.
What would she then call the massacre of Syria, where more than half a million have been killed? Are these also statistics?
Fifty-one people were murdered in a Syrian village on June 10 after air strikes by the Syrian air force – but this atrocity hardly made the news. Why? Because it moo. Hard on the heels of this symphony of lowing comes information about the product itself, but this is lost in the sheer wonderment of the moment. With tears in my eyes I try to envisage professional copywriters preparing this ad for the bank’s approval. And marketing executives at FNB slapping one another on the shoulders amid cries of “brilliant, fantastic, absolutely perfect!”
Needless to say, the ad finishes with yet another moo. The mind boggles! JOHN GARDENER
Howick
Ratepayers must run municipalities
I AM VERY much intrigued. It is reported that eThekwini ratepayers could be in for a bill of millions of rand for bodyguards requested by councillors who say they are receiving death threats.
Before the ANC took over the reins in the country, ratepayers were at the helm of local government.
Councils were administered without hitches and councillors did not receive death threats – not to had nothing to do with Israel.
During the 2014 Gaza war, I was hosted by the medical director of Barzalai Hospital in Ashkelon where both Israeli and Arab patients were treated and shared wards and facilities.
The doctors at this hospital were in daily contact with doctors in Gaza, exchanging critical data that saved many lives.
Soni, as a medical doctor, don’t tell us that you are not aware of the medical collaboration between practitioners in Gaza and Israel. ALLAN WOLMAN
Rosebank, Joburg speak of large-scale corruption.
The ANC is responsible for introducing politics in local government and, ever since, we have seen umpteen problems in various municipalities.
We have also seen councillors who have died because of politics.
This is one more reason why ratepayers should be elected to run council affairs and not politicians.
It is the ratepayers who contribute to the coffers of municipalities and it is they who know the aspirations and problems that ratepayers face. The money contributed by ratepayers would be well spent because it comes from the pockets of ratepayers.
Why should politicians be at the helm by representing and yet there is not much contribution from them? Give us back the old-fashioned ratepayers system of local government that we all knew and there was no wastage of money or death threats.
Take it from me, as long as municipalities are controlled by politicians, there won’t be vast improvement and corruption will continue – in fact, there will be very little change. ISMAIL MOOLLA Umzinto