Malema and Shivambu attacking our freedoms
We cannot celebrate human rights if we have people like Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu bullying our journalists. Censorship of the media limits free thinking and completely disrespects our constitution. Our liberty is being attacked before our very eyes. This must stop.
Tsepo Mhlongo, Soweto
The indiscretions of Floyd “The Flawed” Shivambu of the EFF with a journalist on the perimeters of parliament exposed what the EFF really are: racist bullies with chips on their shoulders. They are not to be blamed alone: the South African media gives them the coverage and marketing they need.
MM Letsie, North West
We are (all) stardust!
Ela Gandhi (“It’s time we really get to know each other across the racial divide”, March 18) is spot-on in emphasising that we need to confront our racial history and root out the scourge of racism which continues to inflict itself on South African society more than two decades after the end of apartheid.
It is clear that the dismantling of a racist regime through political means does not eradicate the racism on which the previous society was based. Far more collective and personal effort is needed to root out prejudice of any form.
Gandhi is right that education is the way to go, but I am always surprised that the knowledge, scientific and otherwise, acquired ever since Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution, together with advances in genetics that put paid to the idea that humanity was made of different races which could not live side by side, is not part of our daily discourse in schools, communities and society.
Scientist Ursula Goodenough, in her brilliant book The Sacred Depths of
Nature, suggests that despite differences in the way human beings look, pray or practise cultural rites, there is a need for a common narrative, one that comes from the fact that we are all of this universe which began over 13 billion years ago and which produced our planet and all living forms. We are stardust!
Furthermore, all of humanity, past and present, descended from a group of migrants from this very continent of Africa who parented the world. We live in the cradle of humankind. Apartheid and colonialism have officially ended and there is more than enough scientific and other evidence that the human race is one. This is what our children need to know.
Anwar Suleman Mall, emeritus professor,
University of Cape Town
Fight gender oppression
Despite having a constitution which describes equality as a fundamental pillar of democracy, various reports have indicated that South Africa is not faring well in the fight against gender oppression. Gender inequality persists in almost every facet of life.
The constitution states that everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources.
The latest South African Police Service report (2017) indicates that there were 30 069 rapes over the April to December 2016 period. The South African Medical Research Council states that 40% of men assault their partners daily — and that three women in South Africa are killed every day by their intimate partners.
Discussion of human rights must take into consideration the fact that women, children and gay people are facing daily violence and discrimination in a society that seems to be normalising gender oppression.
Sediko Rakolote
Good riddance to Moyane
I am absolutely elated — as are many of my fellow taxpayers — that Tom Moyane has been suspended. Another Gupta-Zuma acolyte has had his wings clipped.
Moyane was at the South African Revenue Service to do the Guptas’ and former president Jacob Zuma’s bidding. An arrogant man with a disdainful disposition who thumbed his nose at parliament and Pravin Gordhan, who was his previous boss, ran amok at SARS. He knew that Zuma had his back.
He destroyed the morale at SARS and got rid of key personnel using that discredited KPMG report, and generally showed little respect towards the vast majority of law-abiding and tax-paying citizens.
Good riddance at last. Charge Moyane for all the tax offences he has committed and jail him.
Paks Pakiriy, Durban North
Tired of the poor
It is normal to hear politicians and activists refer to “care for the poor”, “the interests of the poor” and “the welfare of the poor”. Others of a more leftist leaning refer to
“the working class and the poor”.
We should approve of and support apparent care and concern for the poor as a moral good. However, the question resounds loudly: is it moral for the poor to remain poor, and for poverty to remain a stark, pervasive reality in the 21st century?
The knowledgeable have long insisted that the material, scientific and technological culture of the modern world makes possible the eradication of poverty. That it in fact makes poverty unnecessary.
It is time for us to orient ourselves towards a prosperous society of equality and inclusivity, in which “the poor” cease to be the supposed benefactors of the “care and concern” of those who are other than poor. In this sense, it will be most moral to be “tired of the poor”.
Mokhalajoe Lebona, Willow Glen