EN PASSANT
THE WHOLE political scenario is in disarray due to the selfish gains of the few from the majority.
What hits one’s common sense (is) why and how were these few manipulated, but are still in control; is it fear of being singled out, or why does “truth, justice and correct consciousness (not) prevail”?
The cracks in the Triparte Alliance are widening more and more and, surprisingly, nothing – nothing concrete or positive for the benefit of the country’s different woes and ills – came out of the last ANC’s five-day conference besides retrogressive land and Sarb issues.
What about the “bigger picture”? Where’s the Rainbow… that we all are waiting for – the way forward. For South Africa! Baba Saloojee Rustenburg
WE ARE repeatedly told that ANC branches may not make decisions, the NEC only, debates matters but does not make decisions, and the ANC president is not based at Luthuli House, but in Pretoria.
MP Makhosi Khoza has reported threats to herself and her daughter to the chief whip, Jackson Mthembu, who has forwarded the problem to Luthuli House, and to the SAPS.
If no protection can be provided for Ms Khoza then why not deploy the brave members of the MKMVA who appear to revel in displaying their military skills and uniforms?
Are the MKMVA really trained in any military skills, including defence tactics, or are they just a bunch of young wannabes? Who actually makes any decisions in the ANC? Tom Lambe Oakdene
HAVING the ability to move young and old alike isn’t a particularly easy feat in the music industry, but Ray Phiri was able to do that with the music group Stimela.
At a time when the apartheid government could ban songs at will, musicians like Phiri remained at the forefront of reminding the world of its responsibility towards the oppressed people of an undemocratic South Africa. Consider the hidden messages in the songs We miss
you Manelo by Chicco Twala and Eddie Grant’s Gimme Hope, Joanna.
In the former song, the artist was actually singing “We miss you Mandela” and the latter was really a song about the apartheid government under the guise of Joanna, representative of Johannesburg and the then South African government.
No doubt the music of Phiri, and other musicians of his generation, made exiles living abroad feel as if they were back home in South Africa… A musical legend has bowed out now, as death does not have a return ticket in our current existence.
Yet on many Sunday afternoons to come, in many jazz lovers’ homes and cars, Phiri will live on. Sandile Ntuli Joburg