Readers’ Views

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Tourism ban as illogical as cooked-chicken ban

The government’s approach to tourism is as illogical as everything else it has done on the pandemic, “Jobs bloodbath, tourism gutted” (October 4).

It doesn’t make sense to ban complete countries if the protocols already screen for infected persons.

In addition, tourists are the easiest people to track since they come through a choke-point (passport control) and by tracking their movements with the app (already required) it should be possible to keep track of any potential clusters.

The tourism ban is as ridiculous as the cooked-chicken ban, which shows that this government is not serious about addressing unemployment. Andrew Merrifield, on businessLIVE

Auditing problem not easy to fix

I can only appreciate the frank analysis and talk from [KPMG SA chair] Wiseman Nkuhlu, “State capture: KPMG’s slippery slide” (Newsmaker, October 4).

This will not be possible to fix easily. Finding experienced people to do audits and review reports and write proper executive summaries is not easy. Not sure how many of these are left at KPMG.

Vis Dragon, on businessLIVE

702 needs emotional rescue

702’s recent relaunch is a desperate attempt to find a foothold in a crumbling legacy media landscape, “702 takes drastic action to stem listenership slump” (October 4).

Primedia Broadcasting acting CEO Geraint Crwys-Williams admitted to failures at the station but waxed lyrically about the shifting racial profile of its presenters, as if racial diversity is the panacea for all its ills.

It’s not. Race is a cosmetic metric when the consumer is human; all listeners are human and therefore slaves to emotion. It’s within the range of shared human emotions that a skilled talk-show host can find the tension needed for compelling radio.

They don’t need to be of a certain colour or to be interested in politics. Politics is the lowest-hanging fruit in talk radio programming. The idea is that politics creates the necessary tension for debate. Thinking that South Africans are joined primarily by shared interests in politics and crime is unimaginative and disrespectful.

My challenge to 702: if you’re serious about reimagining yourself and growing your audience, don’t bother with the skin tone of presenters, rather train them to think about the science of human behaviour. Lose the preoccupation with politics and crime — focus instead on shared emotions. Daryl Ilbury