Pensioners get short end of the stick

I REFER to your front page article, The Mercury, October 9, about pensioners being forced to sell their properties and would like to ask the question, who is lying?

The pensioners’ spokesperson is clearly quoted as saying that apart from an acknowledgement from the mayor’s office, there has been no response to his letter requesting a meeting.

On the other hand the municipality’s spokesperson, Tozi Mthethwa, is quoted very clearly as saying “the city met a delegation from (the estate) to discuss this matter and all the issues were clarified”.

Either your report is less than accurate or there is a serious issue with the truth.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the comment about clarifying issues is ridiculous.

Pensioners we may be but we are not stupid (which the comment implies) and we do not need clarification. We know exactly what’s going on. We need fairness of action and some acknowledgement by the overpaid and overfed political scavengers, that we are people too who should be consulted in these matters and given a little respect.

Finally Tozi Mthethwa makes it clear that pensioners are being punished because we were, apparently, reluctant to disclose the amount of our pensions. Tell me Ms Mthethwa, what is your salary and what increases have you re-

ceived in the past five years – mine is about R11 000 and I haven’t had an increase since 1994. DEREK BIRD Hillcrest