Challenge to a hypocrite
I WANT to let Kenny Kunene know that I would love to have a picture of the controversial, defaced The Spear in my lounge. It would be a constant reminder of our democracy and our freedom of expression, and it would be a great honour to have the picture of our president on my wall.
Since it became so popular, I am sure many of our citizens would also love to have one framed in their homes.
This picture would be good to de-stress for many who can just chuckle about it and say, “it’s one of those things”, when one gets older. It will be about the good old days our children can talk about in 30 years or more. You are such a hypocrite, Kunene, when you talk about it making a “mockery of SA’s struggle”.
What struggle are you talk- ing about? Where are the real struggle heroes? You say that our president has been insulted in the worst way possible? What about you: didn’t you insult women by hiring them for your pleasure and the pleasure of your guests, placing sushi on their seminaked bodies and eating off their bodies? So it’s okay with you to demean women in the worst possible way?
So your money can buy anything? You can spend millions to show off by buying The Spear and having a bonfire.
While you are living in luxury, you are blind to the realities that surround you. Your own people sleep in the streets, children learn without a roof over their heads and with no text books.
Your half-a-million or more could help build classrooms or toilets for a school that lacks ablution facilities, not forgetting the many child-headed homes that go without meals.
Do it for your people, Kunene, leave The Spear alone.
The more you want to burn it, the more popular it will become.
As for your comrade Blade Nzimande, he should concentrate on education. He can’t do three things: be a secretary of SACP, be involved in politics and be a minister of education.
No wonder higher education is in shambles; he does not know where to apply his mind. As a matter of fact, Blade should join your club rather than be minister of education.
Fighting crime and corruption so people can live peacefully should be priorities now. LORETTA RAJKUMAR
e-mail PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma reportedly told Parliament last week that the nation still needed to heal from the apartheid era that ended in 1994.
He said “this country has a history, a very painful history, whose deep scars still show”.
He added that a nationbuilding summit in July would offer South Africa the opportunity to “confront this painful history, with a view to finding final closure and healing” and that everyone had “suffered enough indignity”.
I don’t believe that a politically driven “summit” is a way to go because politics is driven by political parties whose agendas often pollute the solutions.
This was what the politically settled Truth and Recon- ciliation Commission (TRC) process did.
There must be a civil society involvement at the very outset.
Ordinary people must be invited to sit around the table and be permitted to share and exchange experiences of the pain and suffering that was “cured” by a placebo that was the TRC process.
Brett Murray’s artwork has opened wounds and caused suppuration.
We have competent leaders such as Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Dr Zulekha Mayet and Dr Lubna Nadvi, Mary De Haas as well as Dr Devi Rajab who have the power to unite all shades of opinion behind the single cause. SABER AHMED JAZBHAY
Durban WE ARE all so eager to point fingers and judge people and organisations when they do a poor job, so let me take this opportunity to congratulate the senior officials and members’ of the Shree Muruga Temple of Esselen Crescent for a job well done.
The weekend of June 2 and 3 saw the celebration of the Lord Muraga Festival, starting with a chariot float procession and finishing at the temple with well-organised prayer and entertainment by South African and international artists.
Thanks, too, for the ample food and the very affordable tuckshop that was available.
So keep up the good work and may Lord Muruga bless all you hard-working people. Swami SaranAm. LENNIE PILLAY