Bleeding borders, broken health care, stuck record

Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi complains about the public health sector being overburdened in SA. It is a sad indictment that since 1994, conditions in the public health-care sector have steadily deteriorated to near collapse under different ANC health ministers.

Two things contributed to this situation. Firstly, the decision to close nursing training colleges, which produced worldclass professionals who were paid a stipend while undergoing their three-year bedside training in designated provincial hospital settings.

Subsequent to this lunacy, incompetent employees were put in place to manage the health sector. How many times have vital drugs run out? We now even hear of doctors not being paid. The list goes on.

Secondly, this government opened the floodgates at our borders. There is no country on Earth that lets immigrants, illegal or legal, come in and out at will.

We now hear the minister of health complaining about the levels of foreign baby deliveries in our public hospitals. It is not only baby deliveries crowding our hospitals — all other types of patients come from the continent for free health care.

The horse has bolted, it is too late now to start making hysterical calls, like Gauteng premier David Makhura’s about foreign nationals selling drugs, committing crimes and causing havoc in our communities.

The indifference of our government at the borders has done much damage to the economy, to the extent that we now even have illegal foreign “pastors/prophets” becoming private-jet owners from monies virtually extorted from our citizens while our officials watch and do nothing.

To the health minister and the Gauteng premier: we are reaping the consequences of your government’s policies!

Laurel Angoma, Kelvin

DA race labelling is disgusting

I read with an abject sense of disgust, horror and deep disappointment the frontpage report, “DA in row over ‘proof’ of would-be MP’s race” (March 3), in which a KwaZulu-Natal list candidate was asked for proof that she was “not white”.

The Population Registration Act that racially labelled South Africans came into force on July 7 1950. The introduction of this and other apartheid laws led to opposition, resistance and protest over a 40-year period, with massive opposition by South Africans who were the subject of classification and discrimination by these laws, and others appalled by the inhuman, unchristian and baldly racist nature of the laws. The entire world rose up against the revolting, despicable, disgusting policy of apartheid.

The act was repealed on June 28 1991. Twenty-eight years later, the DA resurrects a repealed, racist, inhuman law and demands that a candidate provide proof of a racist label that no longer applies and over which the world and South Africans rose up to demand the abolition of.

Here is the official opposition party to the ANC (which, incidentally, carried on using the very racist labels it fought against for over 40 years) bringing those labels back when deciding on its candidate list.

Is this what is going on behind the DA label? If so, shame on you! You are no better than the racial-profiling ANC that you wish to replace. After 46 years of Nazi (oops, sorry) Nat rule, and a further 25 years of ANC racial labelling, what sane person do you expect would want to vote for you?

Professor RH du Pré, Wilderness

Vexatious attack on veganism

Re “Veganism racket may be bad for our planet — and for you” (March 3): I’m not sure what studies the author of this vexatious article is referring to but the claim that veganism is “bad for our planet” is scientifically inaccurate.

An Oxford study titled “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers”, published last June in the eminent journal Science, is widely regarded as the most extensive analysis of animal agriculture’s devastating impact on the environment to date. The study observed nearly 39,000 farms in 119 countries and concluded that even the least sustainable modes of plant-based agriculture are significantly less harmful than the most sustainable forms of animal agriculture.

Indeed, animal agriculture, which is the leading cause behind deforestation, global biodiversity loss and ocean dead zones, uses 83% of all arable farmland but only produces 18% of global calories and 37% of protein.

Crucially, the author misunderstands veganism. It isn’t a health trend that loses credibility because companies are capitalising on vegan sausage rolls. Veganism is an ethical commitment to avoid directly or indirectly harming animals as far as is practicable.

Samantha Smith, Scarborough

The Henderson cure

When things look bleak and all seems lost, I find that driving past a well-manicured club or school cricket ground always cheers me up. It reassures and calms me, especially if a match is in progress. Somehow one gets the feeling the centre is holding and the good times will come again, underpinned by the traditions and ethos of the gentleman’s game.

So Archie Henderson’s beautifully worded article, “Over and still not out” (March 3), was to me a real tonic, a beacon of hope in the sea of gloom of the current news cycle, and I’ve been smiling ever since. Reminds me that Stephen Fry once opined that cricket is God’s way of telling us He loves us.

Well done, Archie, and thanks.

Michael Hook, Parkhurst

Write to PO Box 1742, Saxonwold 2132; SMS 33662; e-mail: tellus@sundaytimes.co.za; Fax: 011 280 5150 All mail should be accompanied by a street address and daytime telephone number. The Editor reserves the right to cut letters