What a shock that I am being accused — Buthelezi

With arrests of corrupt politicians gathering momentum, my photograph accompanied by the headline “Buthelezi accused of meddling in municipality” must have elicited a collective gasp (Sunday Times, October 4).

My legacy of standing against corruption is well known, from my time as chief minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu government, to my time in cabinet as minister of home affairs, and now as a member of parliament. What a shock then that I am being accused! The question is simply, who is accusing me? Nowhere in Ms Zimasa Matiwane’s article does she answer this question. It is not the Hawks, or the SAPS or the department of cooperative governance & traditional affairs. In fact, no-one has accused me, beyond Ms Matiwane herself.

She has created a wild story where none exists by relying on hearsay from unnamed people. Why is she so keen to jump to conclusions and be led down the garden path? Clearly someone is feeding Ms Matiwane false information, and she is just lapping it up.

She should have been tipped off to the dubiousness of her information when the former municipal manager avoided her questions, claiming through his lawyer that he “intends to pursue legal avenues in respect of his dismissal” and “he will not comment until the matter is before the relevant court”.

As I told Ms Matiwane, the matter has already gone to the Pietermaritzburg high court and even the Constitutional Court, which ruledwe had to dismiss him.

It is highly unethical of Ms Matiwane to quote defamatory accusations against me and the IFP from an unnamed source, particularly when everything she accuses us of had already been contradicted by the facts. Due to the seriousness of her false accusations and the damage she has caused, I am compelled to approach the press ombud.

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, founder and president emeritus, IFP

We stand by our story — Ed

A most bizarre take on education

It’s a puzzle to understand where Vusi Mavimbela was in 1994 as an ANC member (“Whispering in the ear of Ramaphosa and Mbeki: save the ANC and the country”, October 4).

His take on education, having been in the midst of ANC decision-making, is most bizarre. Or is it a question of not understanding the situation then? What was the objective of the ANC in closing teacher training and nursing colleges? To ensure the destruction of the legacy of Bantu education? What was offered in replacement? You could not be more blind to reality than to claim that Africans were/are wholly destroyed by Bantu education. Just look around. In the few professions in which African training was allowed by apartheid, they are performing to world standards.

Mavimbela probably did not read the article on Professor Malegapuru Makgoba in the Sunday Times the previous week. It is not Bantu education but the determination of people that make people.

This consistent barraging of people with the idea that apartheid destroyed them irreversibly and the ANC is their only salvation is absolute nonsense. The outcome of 26 years of the ANC is the indisputable proof.

Dr Kenosi Mosalakae, Houghton

A lot of other fingers in the till

The ANC should appreciate the antics of former president Jacob Zuma. He is showing his loyalty to the party by ducking and diving. He knows only too well that if he spills the beans many top-rung members will be implicated in contributing towards the rot enveloping the moral fibre of the nation.

Pure logic dictates that it was never only his fingers in the till, and what’s more, his fellow cadres must have been aware of his exploits. Put another way, was his boss at the time, Thabo Mbeki, blind to his relationship with Schabir Shaik? What about the then minister of finance? Did he not smell a rat with the arms deal? That also goes for President Cyril Ramaphosa.

One wonders whether the judiciary and law enforcement agencies are also pussyfooting to prevent the ANC from further collapse. A scary thought.

Cliff Buchler, George

US election important to all of us

The choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is a choice between two different world views. From a humanitarian angle it is a choice between an inclusive and exclusive world view; a choice between tolerance and intolerance; between unity and division. From a political perspective it is a choice between multilateralism and co-operative global governance and narrow nationalism; between global cooperation and isolation.

Covid-19 finally brought the message home: international co-operation has become indispensable in aworld where events in one country have an impact globally like never before. The contrast between the two candidates could not be starker. The outcome of the US election is important to all of us.

Dawie Jacobs, Sterrewag

Trump KKK cartoon sick and lazy

Last week’s cartoon of Trump in a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) hood is sick and unbelievably asinine. Trump is a Republican. The KKK is a paramilitary organisation set up by the Democratic Party after the Civil War, to terrorise and intimidate newly freed slaves in the South. It reached its peak in the 1920s when a brutal form of apartheid was practised in the South. This is lazy and ignorant journalism!

Graeme Long, Johannesburg

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