Mayor’s initiative will help get things done

IT IS very encouraging that mayor James Nxumalo is taking the initiative and getting to see the problems first-hand in the city.

This is what great leaders, in any field, are made of.

Strange as it may seem, water leaks are nothing new and a few years back during visits to Wema Hostel (near Lamontville) it was shocking to see the mains gushing out with potable water, almost as a river.

As for the facilities, these were no different to the ’60s and an eyeopener.

Nxumalo has set the example with his firm leadership that he would not move until some action was being taken.

All too often officials sit on high horses, feed politicians with little information and nothing happens.

Mr Mayor, what you have seen can be multiplied throughout the city and you have applied the famous management solution – MBWA (Management by Walking Around).

As for the call centre, really this proves what we’ve known all along. It’s pretty useless as officials do not take them seriously.

The next step should be a naming and shaming of officials and departments who do not perform when numerous complaints have been logged and nothing happens. MUHAMMAD OMAR

Durban North

BEE and quotas are counterproductive

I MUST concur totally with the writer Duncan du Bois, whose letter, “Racial reform triggers new tension” (The Mercury, November 17), in which he questions the cogency of Eusebius McKaiser’s argument regarding racial representivity as a means of restructuring society.

Undoubtedly, racism, which formed the bedrock of the apartheid narrative, has redefined its influence, paradoxically, in a free and democratic South Africa.

Any form of redress of past inequities that uses arbitrary measurements such as race to qualify such redress, inevitably creates further inequalities as someone gains and someone loses – sadly along racial lines.

Whether it is quota systems or BEE or the questionable concept of transformation that gives nuance to the notion of “mainly black”, this will ultimately cause dissatisfaction among those who were once equally prejudiced by past injustices.

My question, which has yet to be answered, is when will transforma- tion end? Each time an objective is achieved the goalposts are moved, so as a work in progress, transformation is in continual transition and is almost never ending.

Du Bois is correct – once “race enjoys priority over merit”, no matter how one delineates transformation in the racial context – racial outcomes will perpetually rear their ugly head.

We cannot restructure South Africa along racial lines. If that is the case, our woes will simply be compounded exponentially – without tangible solutions. NARENDH GANESH

Durban North

Descending into chaos with Zuma

SO, MR Zuma, are you saying to us all that before “your” chosen officials attend to my constitutional rights as a South African citizen, they should ask for my ANC membership card?

Jobs for ANC party members first, jobs for “pals”, houses for ANC cadres moved to the top of the waiting list, my party, right or wrong? By your stated admission, “ANC first”, you tell South African government officials to place party before country. Not only that, you place personal bias and privilege before the law.

Something very basic to democracy you don't seem to get: when I cast my vote it is secret. Why? To protect me and all of us from favouritism, from such cronyism. The secret ballot guards civil liberty, enables real fraternity and guarantees social equality. That is why we have a secret ballot, so that party affiliation should not prejudice political freedom or citizens’ rights.

So please explain properly the point of having a secret ballot in a country where party comes first anyway? You okay the use of power and position to jettison all the rest of us who vote against you. Is that fair?

What a recipe for social disinte- gration, lies, bribery and corruption. Now it becomes clear why South Africa is slowly descending into chaos. Think again, Mr President, and transform. DESI HALSE

Durban

Absence of MP highlights excesses

YOUR leader “Absent a Year” (The Mercury, November 17) is interesting. One must naturally feel sympathy for Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi and wish her a speedy recovery.

However, your comments on the causes for her illness suggests that, even while she was working, her inability to perform optimally was apparent and her now long stay in hospital clearly indicates that the ministry (Science and Technology) can perform adequately (we presume) without an effective deputy minister, suggesting that it doesn’t really need one.

Does this mean that the minister and his staff will have to work a bit harder (ag shame)?

Perhaps the same situation prevails in other ministries which could dispense with their deputies, thereby effecting a significant reduction cost.

In these troubled times when many are asked for extra effort this should be considered, particularly as we have one of the biggest parliaments in the world. C P D Ogilvy

DURBAN

DA should stick to its guns

RECENT columns by James Myburgh and George Devenish refer.

Even without pressure from the ANC, the DA could not initially have “backed Dianne Kohler Barnard” without losing the respect of a vast number of its supporters.

Since then, however,

not

only have new mitigating facts about the incident been made clear by Myburgh, but President Jacob Zuma’s recent pronouncement regarding the status of our constitution forces us to view the Kohler Barnard incident in a fresh light; which of the two public statements is the greater threat to nation-building?

It would seem only just for the DA, in considering Kohler Barnard’s appeal, to say that they can only go ahead with her expulsion if the ANC institutes similar disciplinary charges against Zuma for his “denial and contradiction of his legal and constitutional obligations” to the Republic of South Africa.

The DA holds the high ground and needs to continue to use this position of strength. KEITH OLIVIER Pietermaritzburg

Lesson from the Jannie Smuts era

PREVIOUS racist governments have received their due condemnation. However, it would be instructive if the current generation of politicians and public “servants” noted a feature of the Jannie Smuts era of government.

Richard Steyn in his Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness draws attention to the moral and ethical values upheld by Smuts. “… he let it be understood that public resources were not there to be plundered by politicians or civil servants”.

Today South Africa loses billions of rands every year through corrupt politicians and officials helping themselves to public money. Some of these corrupt activities are known, others hidden due to the acceptance and condoning of them.

Part of our problem today is that President Zuma and many of his cohorts in the ANC are unable with any degree of integrity to make a call as did General Smuts. RON LEGG

Hillcrest