We, too, are only as good as our leaders
‘GOOD citizens cannot ignore havoc wrought by SA’s wrecking ball” (March 20) refers. Those looking for someone to blame for South Africa’s problems need look no further than themselves. Some of our leaders may be to blame, but they got their audacity from our apathy. Very few, if any, of us have taken ownership of the only country a majority of us will ever call home. We bribe officials or refuse to pay for services. Where we pay, we exclude others. We are impressed by wealth even when we can’t or won’t explain how it came about.
Some of us refuse to vote, instead of using our vote as a medium of instruction in accountability. We protect only that which is immediately around us, instead of committing to our country and nation in its entirety.
Some of us are racists, some of us are xenophobes and a lot of us just aren’t interested. We are outraged and then we go back to our Twitter, lattes, bills or ngudu (liquor).
We have abdicated our personal civic responsibility to and for our country. Opportunists stepped in, some under the guise of politics, others under the guise of business. We have made easier, uncomplicated choices instead of challenging ourselves to go beyond what we think we are capable of. Now we may lose what we never realised we had. — Bongi Nkosi, Johannesburg
Servants or secret agents?
PARLIAMENT released a statement last week congratulating itself on the outcome of a press ombud ruling “against” the Sunday Times for a story on heavy-handed and invasive measures to subject parliament’s staff to new security vetting.
For the record: the ombud dismissed the bulk of parliament’s complaints about the report (save that the Sunday Times did not give parliament enough time to comment before publication, and did not make this fact clear in the article).
In turning down parliament’s application for leave to appeal, Judge Bernard Ngoepe said the article’s use of words such as “onslaught”, “clampdown on staff” and “aggressive” was reasonable given the circumstances.
Instead of a chest-beating response, parliament would do well to answer to the mounting evidence that its new security measures are out of control and have left staff and the public rattled. Yes, parliament’s staff have been vetted before, but parliament has yet to explain why its staff should now require “top secret” security clearance. Are they public servants or secret agents? Nothing has been said of the allegation, reported in the Sunday Times, that intelligence officials involved in the security vetting accused the Right2Know Campaign of being foreign spies.
Given last week’s court ruling that parliament’s use of police to drag unruly MPs out of the National Assembly was unconstitutional, perhaps it is time for the institution to rethink how much power it has given our security structures in general. — Micah Roshan Reddy, Right2Know Campaign
Fighting the new struggle
SEVERAL articles in the Sunday Times of March 20 refer. As a concerned citizen, I am heartened by the prominent government and other leaders who have stepped forward to testify how they refused to subvert democracy.
They have chosen integrity over blind loyalty. They have risked their jobs; some have lost theirs and many are still at risk. These brave patriots, and others who are so inspired, can become the cornerstones for rebuilding our democracy.
These leaders are engaged in a new struggle and they need support. We the people must support them in every way we can, in speaking out and by using the voice of our votes. — Dr CA Puhl-Snyman, Stellenbosch
Just a stamp, asseblief
I’M sending you a postage stamp on which you can list the people who would believe the outcome of any ANC internal Gupta investigation, if it is ever published. — Bryan Rowland, Howick
Where were you, Vavi?
“VAVI reveals Zuma aid for Duduzane, Gupta” (March 27) refers.
Why is Zwelinzima Vavi coming up now to talk about the secret business meeting between Duduzane and the Guptas, when in fact it happened in 2008? Had he spoken then, possibly we South Africans wouldn’t have had
Castro is no Verwoerd
RE: “Cuba-US thaw heralds new revolución in the land that time forgot” by Barney Mthombothi (March 27). This article depicts an uninformed picture, adorned with mistaken facts that help to echo typical anti-Cuban propaganda.
Most disappointing is the allegation that the criminal economic blockade is a scapegoat for the revolution. Try to tell that directly to the victims. The US government simply has no right to impose such punishment to extract political concessions from the people of Cuba.
A superpower has demonised and punished a whole nation for over five decades, at the cost of thousands of lives, pain and deprivation. The Cuban people, who sacrificed thousands of lives for the liberation of Africa, cannot easily forgive an offensive comparison of their leaders with the architect of apartheid. — Iván F Ferrer Arenas, second secretary, embassy of Cuba in South Africa
First casualty of war
BONGANI Madondo writes in “Next steps in Obama’s Cuba tango” (March 27) that Cuba defeated “the Boers and their minions, Unita, at Cuito Cuanavale”.
Bongani has been listening to to be subjected to all the political and financial turmoil in this country.
What kept him from speaking then? It makes you think, doesn’t it? — Anastasia Pretorius, by e-mail
Kaizer’s wearing no clothes
GREETINGS, BBK. Thank you for the article about my team, Kaizer Chiefs, in “The curse of Komphela — why the mighty have fallen” (March 20). Hopefully management and playing personnel will read it and take stock.
A friend and I spent over R10 000 on hotel bookings and other stuff to travel to Durban in December for the TKO final — only to be rewarded with that lethargic performance. We told ourselves we’d only go back when Kaizer Chiefs recognised the troubles we go through to support them. — James Maiketso, Ga-Rankuwa people like Ronnie Kasrils, who have also attempted to rewrite history to cover up the pitiful performance of the communist cabal in Angola and Namibia during the bush war. — Michael McWilliams, paratrooper and author of “Battle for Cassinga” and “Osama’s Angel”, by e-mail
Admirable diversity
I JUST wanted to say thank you for your informative and entertaining articles on Cuba. Bongani Madondo and Barney Mthombothi did a sterling job with their cultural and political observations respectively. The diversity of your newspaper’s writings and writers is what has made it a Sunday must for me for decades. Well done. — Richard Nwamba, by e-mail
Desperately seeking answers
FOR one who is still in the nursery school of political discussion, I would find it illuminating if Hogarth would get himself/herself off their pedestal and enunciate what it is about the DA he/she dislikes so much and why it is referred to so disparagingly as the Desperate Alliance? — Douglas Wickins, by e-mail