Xenophobia driven by rogues in home affairs

Service delivery protests forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to cut short an ANC campaign in Alexandra. But the visit enlightened him about the issues faced by communities because of intransigent municipal leaderships.

We hope Ramaphosa will also look into the recent xenophobic attacks instigated by the competition for resources.

The problem has nothing to do with foreigners and everything to do with rogue elements in the department of home affairs who allow migrants to enter the country illegally.

The government departments are working in silos, with political principals talking past each other, and are clueless about porous borders. The security cluster lacks the resolve to deal with border control lapses.

While the department of trade & industry spearheads the regional industrial integration to unlock growth and development potential, the department of health says every national for themselves because it’s costly to provide free services for all. Foreigners, who bring investments and scarce skills, are made to suffer because illegal migrants burden the health-care system.

All this is relegating SA to an island outside the global village. It becomes a case of “united we stood in the struggle, now we’re falling apart” due to a lack of political will to confront the real problem.

Our forebears participated in the PanAfrican Conference in 1900 because they were guided by unity that led to the Organisation of African Unity. This legacy is a point of reference that there cannot be any justification for xenophobic attacks. Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni

Keep ‘old’ academics working

The Mangosuthu University of Technology must be applauded for advertising shortterm contract posts for “retired professors” (Sunday Times Careers, April 7). This is a far cry from the situation in SA where a productive academic, on reaching the age of 65, is sent home.

In the US you can continue working, provided you are compos mentis. The previous minister of higher education, Blade Nzimande, paid lip service to academics working after their retirement.

I can understand the political imperative of giving jobs to younger academics, but surely it is discriminatory to tell over-65s to go to pasture when one can continue working in the political, legal, journalistic and private medical fields until one drops dead? What cockeyed logic dictates that a scientist at a government hospital must retire at 65 when a politician can go on until they are senile?

Harry Sewlall, Parkmore

Buthelezi can be trusted

Prince Buthelezi's speech at the Siyanqoba rally on Saturday April 6 in Bergville says it all. He is a man of integrity who has never led this country up the garden path.

I was there when he said: “The IFP is ready to take back Okhahlamba [the local municipality], not because we are hungry for power, but because we want more for this community.

“We want clean governance, honest leadership, transparency and participation. We want to bring the IFP’s strategy for youth empowerment, which is already working wherever we govern. We want to serve your needs and make sure that you are respected in every decision taken by council.”

He is not a corrupt political leader and respects the people. He listens to them and knows their needs and sufferings.

Long before it became fashionable to prioritise young people and education he advocated “education for liberation” when others wanted “liberation first”.

Indeed, the IFP, through Prince Buthelezi’s leadership, can make a huge difference to the lives of all South Africans, young and old, educated and illiterate, employed and unemployed. Give Inkatha a chance.

Mathapelo Nkadimeng, Thokoza

Get our skilled emigrants back

Peter Bruce’s April 7 column, “Fighting hard to keep out the jobs and skills we need”, was insightful. Of course we should be encouraging skilled immigrants to live and work in SA.

He failed, however, to point out how much more direct it would be to persuade South African emigrants to return.

The vast majority who have found a future elsewhere have taken along with them precious talents and abilities that SA needs. Many would likely welcome an excuse to return. They left because of crime, corruption and discrimination.

A government that recognises what we have lost and how best we can recover those losses would surely enjoy widespread electoral support — approval derived from the resultant heightened economic growth.

John Spira, Johannesburg

Mirage jet was a mirage

Peter Bruce writes, in an otherwise wellreferenced and reasonable column, that SA was able to re-engineer Argentine air force Mirage engines to enable the sinking of HMS Sheffield. It was not a Mirage that sunk the Sheffield but a Super Étendard, made in France with a completely Frenchdesigned and -manufactured engine.

Moreover, there is no way it can be claimed, even probably, that the Frenchdesigned and -produced Exocet missile was made in SA. SA was never a major and diverse weapons manufacturer; we managed to specialise in a few niche areas, that’s all.

I realise that not all people are military buffs, but a cursory Google or Wikipedia check should have put the myths to bed.

G Heath, Kloof

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