Why so chicken about revealing poultry master plan?
The cynicism that Astral CEO Chris
Schutte shared with Chris Barron about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s calls for investment and promises of economic growth, in “Asked to sink cash into broken towns” (Business Times, December 1), touched a very sensitive nerve.
It has been a month since the poultry industry master plan was signed at President Ramaphosa’s investment conference, with a R1.5bn pledge from the poultry industry. And yet the final plan has not been released, and there is still no word from trade & industry minister Ebrahim Patel about the promised tariff on imported chicken.
The motivation for the master plan was not only the urgent need to save the industry and its jobs from the predations of importers dumping hundreds of thousands of tonnes of chicken onto the local market, but also to put it on a growth path and create jobs.
And yet, nothing has happened since it was signed on November 6. The master plan promised action to curb imports “soon”. No job-creating tariffs yet, and possibly nothing over the holiday period.
A rather bleak and unfestive season lies ahead for those thousands of people who have their hopes pinned on jobs in a thriving local chicken industry.
This plays right into the importers’ hands — they don’t want the import curbs promised in the master plan, nor the tighter food safety regulations that could complicate their business.
Why has the completed and signed master plan not been published? What was signed a month ago? There’s a lot of work to follow, a monitoring team to appoint and complex tasks due for completion before the end of March.
Now is the time for Mr Patel to panic. He still has a chance, before the government shuts down for the holidays, to give the jobless some cheer.
Francois Baird, FairPlay
No-one wants to be a prostitute
I wish to comment on the incisive article by Julie Bindel: “Eradicate this vile, abusive trade” (December 1). Reducing women to a commodity lays bare the vileness of a social system that places profits before human dignity. No reasonable person with guaranteed access to the basic necessities of life would choose to be a prostitute.
Legalising prostitution will not represent an end to the exploitation of women and gender-based violence and femicide. I agree with Bindel that the only right we should be concerned with when it comes to prostitution is the right of women and girls not to be bought and sold. Slavery must be rejected in all its forms.
Mzukisi Gaba, Cape Town
ANC has messed up big time
The ANC is a refuge for corruption, looting, patronage networks and inefficiencies. As long as it has the likes of Bongani Bongo, Bathabile Dlamini, Mosebenzi Zwane, Faith Muthambi and others under the tutelage of Ace Magashule, it will never cleanse itself.
I concur with former president Kgalema Motlanthe, who said the ANC must first die if it wants to cleanse itself.
Magashule lambasted the Public Investment Corporation for taking corrective steps to recover billions of rands that went to Sekunjalo’s Independent Media, coming up with all sorts conspiracy theories — just like Bongo, who was singing like a canary after his arrest.
When are these guys going to take accountability for what they have done wrong and allow the law to take its course? It has become impossible to defend the ANC.
I so wish these looters could commute with us ordinary people on public transport and hear for themselves the negative things that are being said about the ANC. They have messed up big time. Desmond Ngqungwana, Port Elizabeth
Much to learn about pay parity
I would dearly love for someone from the education department to explain to me the reasoning behind school governing body (SGB) positions.
If qualified teachers are in such demand, why not give them proper positions instead of insulting them with SGB posts where they earn peanuts for doing the exact same job as officially employed teachers? I am sure that there is more than enough funding available, even though most of it is being looted.
Also, why do fully qualified grade R teachers only get a third of the salary that a grade 1 teacher, in the class next door, gets? Is the first, most important year of a child’s education that undervalued?
Malusi Magwaza, Pietermaritzburg
Whiff of Malema graft taints EFF
The revelations of corruption against Julius Malema taint not only his reputation but that of the EEF as a whole.
The irony is that some of the people the EFF claims to represent — low-earning workers such as security guards, domestic workers and petrol attendants — are probably victims of the VBS heist.
The EFF was vocal during the era of former president Jacob Zuma. It called him a constitutional delinquent and played the role of anti-corruption watchdog in parliament.
SA is a sick society riddled with politicians involved in corruption scandals. The wheels of justice seem to turn slowly against the perpetrators of these crimes.
We do not choose politicians on merit but on loyalty and partisanship. Politicians must walk the talk and refrain from greed and theft.
Politics should not be used as a passport to opulence but as a vehicle to assist the needy and vulnerable.
Lindani Ngcobo, Bellair, Durban