Praise for school that gave SA the young Dr Kubheka

IWOULD like to congratulate the school that provided Sandile Kubheka with the secondary support and nurtured him to where he is today, “South Africa’s youngest doctor keeps one little secret — his age” (February 23).

Dedication has always been one of the cornerstones of Siyamukela High School in Newcastle.

I know because I worked there in the ’80s and it was like my second home. The pupils never gave us headaches and success was the prime goal. The teachers were focused and supportive of their charges. To the staff working there now: viva! — Ntombi Xulu, Johannesburg

Be proud of your age, doc

DR Kubheka must stop lying to his patients about his age. It is his God-given right to heal people. — Mangali, Mahikeng

Destroy arms deal albatross

“SERITI probe’s cautious style risks hiding dirty secrets” (February 23) refers. A properly conducted and accountable arms procurement commission gives South Africa the opportunity to rid itself of a debilitating R70-billion millstone.

The invalidity of the arms deal is plain to any informed observer: quite apart from the admitted and uncovered bribery and corruption, the procurement of arms did not pass constitutional muster for want of compliance with the “fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective” criteria of section 217 of the constitution.

The rationality of the useless or nonexistent offsets, the cogency of the contracts and the common-law remedies for their breach are all available to any accountable government that has the political will to rid the nation of this expensive albatross.

Instead, so much energy has been expended covering up the wrongdoing in the arms deal that there is little state capacity left for more worthy pursuits, such as addressing the challenges of poverty, inequality and joblessness as well as the lack of proper education, healthcare and housing for the 12 million citizens who go hungry every day in South Africa.

It may be too late to imprison the wrongdoers because it is too difficult to mount fair criminal trials at this stage, but it is not too late to cancel the deals, return the virtually useless armaments to the European manufacturers that sold them and recover the money and any damages that may be proved. Blacklisting wrongdoers would also help.

The arms procurement commission has the opportunity to allay the reasonable apprehensions that its handling of the continuing state cover-up of the flaws in the arms deals have created. Nor is it too late for the commission to get the state to answer the unanswered allegations placed before the Constitutional Court in the application that led to the appointment of the commission. It could save a lot of time in the hearings through which the commission is dawdling at great expense to the taxpayer. Fudging the fact of the theft from the poor that corruption entails won’t do. — Paul Hoffman SC, director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa

John Vorster funny, for once

THANKS so much for giving me such a good laugh when I read Mark Gevisser’s extract about John Vorster Square, “Gasping for air in the corridors that time forgot” (February 23). I am 82 and identify with the sad fact that all government departments are so stressful that you have to try to find a funny side somewhere. — Janet Norris, by SMS

Backing shark saviour Chan

THANK you for the positive article, “No shark fin, thanks, in Jackie Chan’s soup” (February 23).

If only more celebrities would speak out on behalf of animals and reveal the erroneous beliefs about many traditional remedies. I hope Chan’s message will spread far and wide, and that people will realise that times have changed and we now need to conserve and care for wildlife. — A Hemmings, Pietermaritzburg

Inured to lack of qualifications

REDI Tlhabi’s “Motsoeneng’s fall may be as sudden as his rise at SABC” (February 23) refers. The general state of the academic qualifications of some of those appointed to senior positions in the public sector and some state institutions makes your columnist’s prediction of the fall of the SABC’s chief operations officer seem optimistic. Hlaudi Motsoeneng holds his post even though he does not have matric.

Such appointments have become the acceptable standard.

South Africa has been induced to accept such low standards that even the president, Jacob Zuma, is euphemistically introduced as not having a formal education.

That history “has been irrevocably marked by people who have achieved greatness despite a lack of qualifications” does not in any way justify the appointment of the likes of Motsoeneng in top positions.

Most of these appointments are just accidents waiting to happen. When the dust settles on the debacle that is Motsoeneng’s appointment, the cost of his tenure will be unquantifiable.

Is the silence of the ruling party not deafening as Motsoeneng calls a media conference to justify his appointment at the SABC? — Vula, Kagiso

Will SABC chief get matric?

CADRE deployment is killing us. You see it in job or promotion interviews in which a senior officer with a Std 8 tries to argue with the interviewing panel — whose members have degrees — that a person without any qualifications should be promoted because he/she doesn’t see education as important because the officer can do the job even though he or she only has a Std 8.

Will Motsoeneng’s lawyer, Zola Majavu, get a court order forcing the Department of Education to give his client a Grade 12 certificate? — Xolani Williams, Cape Town

Socks and attendance ‘diploma’

I’M writing regarding “Socks but no jobs in R1.6-billion splurge” (February 16). I’m one of the National Rural Youth Service Corps participants and what you say truly happens.

The coordinators wasted a lot of money. When we went from one province to train in another, the coordinators would each hire cars as individuals, wasting money. The taxi owners who took us to different areas were making about R14 000 a trip. We are about to sign a new contract for another two years and they’re forcing us to sign affidavits saying that we are not working elsewhere. We do not get any certificates for out-training. Or, if we do, it is a “certificate of attendance”.

Please help us to fight this corruption: the youth from rural areas are mostly uninformed, so it allows the youth corps to do anything. The service corps plays with us. — Lwazi, by e-mail

Tell us if there is a secret deal

READING “Minority praise for majority” in Hogarth (February 23), I could not help laughing. Hogarth erred: Minority Front MP Roy Bhoola should have been given the title of mampara of the week.

I only hope that the party does not cut a secret deal and sell its voters to the ANC.

I trust that this does not happen, because all credibility will be lost and the Indian voters, who have become discerning, will rebel against such covert dealings. It’s time the party gave its voters the assurance that this will not happen. — Dhayalan Moodley, Mobeni Heights

No regard for history

“DEMOLITION order shocks owners” (February 16) refers. My parents owned a shack/cottage at the Fish River mouth between 1964 and 1972, and it was the place where the family spent our Christmas holidays.

In those days, there were only 49 shacks at the mouth of the Fish River. Fifty would have meant that the area had to be proclaimed a township and so the number was kept at 49. My parents owned the shack Grunters Grotto in partnership with Athol Rowan, the great South African spin bowler. The ground on which the dwelling was built was leased on a 99-year basis.

Unfortunately, our shack was washed away in the 1972 floods and, as the landscape of the river mouth had been changed by the floods, the shack could not be rebuilt.

The area adjacent to the river was a wetland, but the timber shacks were built away from the wetland. Drinking water was collected in rainwater tanks and water for washing was pumped into a separate tank from a borehole. There was no electricity, and gas and paraffin were used for lighting and cooking. Our only supply store was the local trading store, and to get provisions our parents had to drive to Port Alfred along the coastal road, which had 17 farm gates to negotiate.

The area has been a settlement for 200 years. It has been a place where judges, doctors, Springbok rugby players came to unwind. Conservation has been respected and practised by all who frequent the area. The demolition order is surely given by a person ignorant of the history of the settlement. — Carolyn Petersen, Johannesburg