Leon, chief justice ignore Israeli persecution

Tony Leon is a high-order intellectual. It seems, when it comes to Israel, of which he is a known supporter, Leon freaks out. He ignores the facts on the ground, like Jared Kushner, Donald Trump and most other prominent self-serving US politicians, whose bias against the Palestinian people has wreaked havoc that no religion — Judaism, Christianity or any other — would condone.

Israel has been buttressed by the inhuman subjugation and deprivation of the Palestinians. Leon, in “Israel a handy alibi for SA’s poor foreign policy” (March 28), is a rubber stamp for that inhumanity.

His critique of the South African government’s stance on our chief justice, whom Leon surprisingly defends, is questionable. There can be no defence. SA’s stance on Israel is well founded.

The facts and causes of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, the horrors and atrocities experienced by Palestinian people, which include genocide (documented by Ilan Pappé, professor of history at Exeter University in the UK, and an Israeli at that), should be known to Leon.

Here are some facts on Israel:

● Zionists perpetrated the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948 in Palestine;

● Oversaw the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon of 1982;

● Broke the hands of child stonethrowers;

● Palestinian land continues to be grabbed;

● Israel is being investigated by the

International Criminal Court; and

● Israel has aped the Third Reich and got away with it.

Our chief justice must also be ignorant that Israel cunningly conflated the modern-day illegal state of Israel with the ancient term “Israel”, giving it religious connotations and sentiments when none should exist.

This is the distortion that Israel has been using to garner support, also from ignorant Christians. That distortion serves as a rationalisation to assuage any guilt in the minds of materialistic Christian political heavyweights in the US who buttress Israel and its causes.

The canards set up by the Zionist propaganda machine have entangled Leon and found ready support among ignorant international Islamophobes.

EC Hassim, Pretoria

● See more on the issue on Page 20

De Ruyter deserves our backing

I refer to Makhudu Sefara’s sneering, amateurish “opinion piece” on André de Ruyter, “If De Ruyter had been black, he would’ve been on his way out” (March 28).

Quite frankly, if Sefara’s intention was to undermine white male executives he should have chosen a business sector which he understands, and this is clearly not the case with power generation.

Let’s assume that Mdu Mlaba’s demand figures for 2010 and 2020 are correct. Over that 10-year period Eskom’s fleet aged 10 years, the construction of Medupi and

Kusile continues to be a bumbling disaster, the government turned a blind eye to alternative power solutions and Eskom was riddled with corruption which, to the best of my knowledge, was not spearheaded by a white executive.

To claim De Ruyter “hasn’t a clue how to eliminate load-shedding using resources already at his disposal” is clearly nonsensical. Many of the resources, including Koeberg, have either reached or gone beyond their designed lifespan, planned maintenance is going through a major catch-up phase, design flaws at the new power stations are being rectified, and corruption, as stated by Pravin Gordhan, is “still a feature within Eskom itself”.

On this topic, Sefara may well choose to listen to the minister as opposed to suspended Eskom executive Solly Tshitangano.

De Ruyter has a herculean task and needs our fullest backing. Sefara’s trashy little piece should be dismissed with contempt and I am surprised the Sunday Times published it.

John Wills, Still Bay

Gumede is free to choose

Instead of applying logic and reason to dispute the argument of William Gumede, Bonga Mthembu (Letters, March 28) resorts to ad hominem attacks.

In fact there is nothing sacrosanct about African traditions, colonialism or not.

Is Mthembu saying that were there no colonialism, all Africans would have retained their primordial way of life?

Perhaps he is speaking about his own parochialism.

If, for instance, he believes in divining bones he is free to consult them to diagnose whether he has Covid-19. But that does not mean the likes of Gumede should consult bone throwers just because he is an African. His Africanness notwithstanding, Gumede is free to choose his way of life.

Mthembu is living in a colonially constituted democracy and not in an African tribal settlement. I don’t know whether he has rejected Cape Town’s lights for the moonlit skies of our African traditional universe. The last time I was in Cape Town I did not see the predominance of African traditions at places I visited.

Prof Themba Sono, Centurion

Failure is new chance for Bafana

I am disappointed by Bafana Bafana. This is an opportunity to start afresh. The president of the South African Football Association, Danny Jordaan, and those who appointed the coach must make way for a new leadership. There have to be drastic consequences for failing to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Failure is an opportunity to begin again, intelligently.

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