The wrong end of the accountability stick

GARETH van Onselen’s “The shameful politics of no shame at all” (December 6) left me puzzled. How can he compare apples with lemons? Blunkett was trying to fast-track a visa application for a personal friend, disregarding all who were in the queue; it had nothing to do with governance.

Gigaba, on the other hand, is being blamed for not publicly apologising for an effort to protect children from human trafficking. Gigaba has a responsibility to run a department as best as he can and account for the allocated budget.

Imagine how foolish it would be if managers in their departments (private or public) were to apologise and resign each time their wellintentioned and -researched projects failed. Definitely a manager found guilty of corruption must resign or be fired, which is not the case with the visa saga.

It is nauseating how all wrongs are attributed to the ANC. Van Onselen writes of “unaccountability in the ruling party”. Gigaba is responsible for the policy in his department.

So why should the ANC be blamed for not apologising? — Penny L, by e-mail

Responsibility rare all over

THE sentiments expressed about lack of personal accountability are very valid. Sadder still, similar behaviour is evident in corporate culture today. Individuals don’t account for poor decisions and passing of blame is rife. Let us all look at the societal problem and not only blame the government. — Wayne, Sandton

Ignorance closed sanctuary

“CLAWS out as wildlife haven has wings clipped” (December 6) refers.

The remark by FreeMe’s director, Margo Bansda, that the volunteers were upset because they couldn’t come and play with the animals any more, shows the level of ignorance about wildlife rehabilitation that has brought down this once proud community institution.

Animals in rehab at FreeMe were never “played with”. They were cleaned, medicated, fed and cared for. Any orphaned mammal requires around-the-clock feeding. This was often done by experienced volunteers, who took the animal home and gave up their sleep to bottle-feed in the middle of the night. The objective always being the animal’s eventual release back into the wild.

After 18 years of volunteer-run service, it has taken the new board and rehabilitation manager less than six months to create conditions so bad that the NSPCA has had to close the centre.

We need the current board to resign and for FreeMe to reopen, with the expert rehab staff that were forced out, and volunteers, back in place. — Peggy-Ann Mist, by e-mail

Malaysian mystery

“WE are judged by the company we keep — and he’s a gangster” (December 6) refers.

Barney Mthombothi seems to have factual information about who downed the Malaysian [aircraft] that should be shared with the Dutch commission investigating the incident . . . or is he just a mouthpiece for the Western media narrative? — David Adams, by e-mail

Cheap bid for book sales

THE latest attempt to tarnish the memory of Tertius Myburgh cannot go unchallenged, loath as I am to give any further publicity to a smear.

Myburgh, when editor of the Sunday Times, presided over the biggest and most explosive exposé of the Broederbond, a series of newspaper scoops that shook the Nationalist government in 1978.

Under his direction, journalists Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom investigated and exposed the Afrikaner secret society. They had been given a cache of documents that provided such a wealth of material, it could not all be printed in newspaper stories and so led to a book, the highly successful The Super-Afrikaners, which was extensively publicised by Myburgh in the Sunday Times.

I was in the Sunday Times newsroom at the time and recall the excitement that the scoops aroused, not the least in Myburgh himself. In fact, fearful of a raid by security police, he had the documents hidden and protected by hired guards.

So it is utterly mendacious for the former journalist John Matisonn, in promoting his own book, to attempt to give credence to old rumours that Myburgh was a Nat agent, an apartheid spy, or mole, or whatever,

You open eyes and hearts

“CHRONICLE of a killing in cold blood” by James Oatway (December 6) refers. Hello, James. Please continue doing what you do. Your images captured the plight of people at war with their African relatives. They touched me. Your article today left me close to tears. It reminds me of helping a man who caught fire at a petrol station. The image does not leave your mind and you cannot help but think you could have done more. I hope you will find closure and continue to awaken minds and hearts in South Africa and the world to the plight of those less fortunate, trying to make a better life in foreign countries. — Thobani Mbonane, by e-mail

To me you are a hero

FIRST as a human being, second as a South African and lastly as a proud Alexandrian, I commend you, Mr Oatway, for the pictures you showed the world on that dreadful Sunday. As a journalist you act on instinct because that is what you have been trained to do. You exposed criminality shrouded as xenophobia, you exposed how and to assert as proof that Myburgh suppressed stories about the Broederbond. Matisonn’s only evidence is hearsay, which he repeats freely without apparently any real evidence or effort to verify.

Myburgh had ink in his blood, a journalist from head to toe, and would schmooze anyone for a good story, hence his voracious appetite for socialising with the rich and powerful.

For Matisonn to say that Myburgh betrayed his profession is laughable; publicity-seeking at its lowest and cheapest. — Ric Wilson, Simon’s Town

Mucky river over the fence

THANK you for “Now that’s a blooming waste, says top judge” (December 6) on the Tuynhuys garden, which is so beautiful. But how sad the avenue is just the other side of the fence. The small river between the fence and the avenue is full of bottles and other rubbish. When we UNFORGETTABLE IMAGES: Photographer James Oatway savage people can be. Many people choose to stand by and watch while a man is being hacked to death. You did your job, the criminals were exposed for the world to see.

You might seem heartless to others, but to me you are a hero . . . You didn’t leave him in the rubble to die while you went to look for another award-winning picture. No, you took him to the nearest clinic. You found no doctors, since most doctors are foreigners and didn’t show up that day because they were scared of being killed. You still didn’t leave him there — you took him to Edenvale Hospital. I salute you. — Mpho Moraka, by e-mail bring visitors to see Tuynhuys they unfortunately see the state of the river. — Elaine Corbett, by e-mail

Blow, wind of change

PETER Bruce’s “To be clear, it’s Xi who must be obeyed” (December 6) is most interesting, particularly the good story about the new Tanzanian president’s measures for correcting the wrongs in that economy. What a breath of fresh air! One can only hope that his actions will become a southerly gale in our direction. — Sheelagh Smallwood, by e-mail