Black women, be proud of your natural hair

Farm killings can’t be right Trump will never ever match Madiba’s touch

The uncalled-for damages caused to Clicks stores is counterproductive. I do not understand the rationale behind it because both Clicks and TRESemmé had issued apologies.

Cool heads need to prevail in this matter, two wrongs never make a right. The destruction caused is going to have long-term effects, our own black brothers and sisters are in the majority of those employed by these establishments.

Closing the stores means no income for the lowest of low earners. The energy used to attack the stores and keep people away from earning a living should have been used to protect our vandalised railway lines.

Criminals must be severely punished, irrespective of type of crime or identity of the victim. I’m saying this because of the brutal murders of farm owners and their families who are getting killed almost every day.

Some say the issue is politically motivated, but it’s up to law enforcement to attend to acts of crime, and not to ask about possible politics.

Crime is crime, politically motivated or

The truth of the matter is that many black women choose to wear blond, straight weaves and wigs, of course this is a choice. In their own not-so-subtle way, those black women are perpetuating the stereotype that black hair is dull, dry, damaged and frizzy, therefore they choose white hair that is seen as straight and normal.

I know this truth will not sit well with both the EFF and the women who wear weaves, but this is the truth that needs to be told. This self-hate and selfdoubt started a long time ago with black women who used to apply skinlightening creams.

There is also a very popular wedding song, Tswang, tswang le mmone ngwana o tshwana le lecoloured, loosely translated “Come out all of you and see our child, she’s so beautiful she looks like coloured.” If this is not self-doubt, then I don’t know what it is. This song was sung without influence from any advertising agency.

Zakes Nakedi, Ennerdale not, suspects must be brought to book. Killing farmers cannot be the solution to address our issues as black people. After a farmer is killed, the workers go back home and unemployment continues to grow.

This means the killings on the farms also affect ordinary people in those communities around the farms.

Crime has never been the solution for anything and will never be.

Farm owners have the right to life, just like the rest of us.

Melato Mphahlele, Zebediela

US president Donald Trump called South Africa a toilet and criticised Nelson Mandela. Trump also praised the country’s apartheid-era rule.

At 75, Mandela had won a painful long Struggle against apartheid and became SA’s first black president. What made his achievements all the more remarkable was that for nearly three decades, years that should have been the most productive of his life, he languished in prison.

His was a vision marred neither by personal bitterness nor hostility to his jailers. Instead, it was fed by dignity and a generosity of spirit qualities that were as much part of his involvement to the new constitution he had helped draft. After his release, world leaders rushed to court him.

New York gave the Mandelas a tickertape parade on Broadway and lit the Empire State Building in the ANC colours of black, green and gold. In Washington, he became the first black private citizen to address a joint session of Congress; and in Boston, he addressed a crowd of more than 200,000 people along the banks of the River Charles.

He collected international honours, including more than 50 honorary doctorates from universities around the world, but through the Mandela Foundation he also mobilised funds for education, poverty reduction and the suddenly pressing fight against HIV.

Naushad Ally Ismail