South Africa today: Letters on teachers’ influence, moral crisis, and the PAC’s future

Letters to the editor

Teachers who left a lasting mark

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” they say! I don’t mind any “woo-flung-dung” flung at me, but it is not nice to pick on my teachers, who taught me the English language of kings (and even the queen, if the king happens to be a Charlie!).After all, how can I ever forget the following teachers and the lessons they taught me?

Mr Chetty would stop teaching 10 minutes before knock-off time and advise us, his standard three spoilt kids, to put our heads down on the desk and think about the underprivileged around us. Thinking, he stipulated, must be in English!

Mr Naidoo, in Standard Four, took us on a grand tour of the British Isles. After disembarking at the port of Southampton, we explored the northern coal mines of Newcastle and even witnessed one or two beheadings at the Tower of London – just to remind us where some of the notorious Arabs got their barbaric ideas from Mr MR Singh (“mentally resilient,” for those who abused his initials) taught me to write English compositions with feeling. He would have us listen to Mohamed Rafi, whose singing could flood a cinema auditorium with genuine tears, to inspire our own writing.

At Winterton Walk, giants like Mr Fulchand punched Latin into our upper biceps while showing us the roots of English in its Roman source.

And it is downright rude when readers pick on masters like Mr Vassie Nair, who demonstrated that local apartheid was a freakish invention, pointing to historical Shananigans between a fair-skinned European Mark Antony and the brown-skinned Cleopatra – without any Verwoerdian spies intervening.

Real immorality stems from those who cannot find a single kind word to say about my blessed educators. Shame!  | Ebrahim Essa Durban

The perils of moral collapse

It is no secret, and shattering, that morality across the world is eroding.

Many people engage in unethical behaviours, often repeatedly, without being overwhelmed by guilt. Moral decay has become a powerful threat to humanity’s well-being. We are living in a demented world whose moral fibres have decayed to the point of collapse.

No society can endure that takes a brazenly defiant view of sex and its frightening ramifications for human progress. History has recorded the destruction of such societies over hundreds of years.

Sadly, this generation has become desensitized to intrinsic evils at all levels of civil society. These grotesque acts have weakened our moral fibres and are often presented as equality to advance evil agendas. We remain defiant as we embrace the full buffet of sexual sin.

Edward Gibbon, in his book The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, listed the causes of Rome’s fall in order of importance. Number one on the list was sexual immorality. It also contributed to the downfall of Greece, Egypt, and Babylon. These heinous acts may become the tinderbox that destroys our perverted civilization.

Immorality is the enemy of our fragmented society and a deadly threat to humanity. Legalising immoral behaviour will open the floodgates and plunge humanity into a cesspool that could wipe out normal conduct.

Today’s shameless society seems more focused on sanctioning sin than condemning the evils that threaten to engulf us. The world is facing a moral crisis; it is a dysfunctional, chaotic mess. In a world awash with monumental sins, more and more global citizens are falling prey to malevolent agendas.

Such moral depravity is emblematic of our sick world, and we are being conditioned to remain hostages to immorality from cradle to grave. | Farouk Araie Johannesburg

PAC Was Not Formed for the GNU

The Pan Afrikanist Congress of Azania was founded to pursue an Afrikanist agenda distinct from the ANC’s Charterist tradition.

Yet today, calling out Charterists is treated as persecution. The PAC’s reported participation in the Government of National Unity reflects decisions made by a few individuals, not its membership. The flawed 2022 Seshego congress, propped up by ghost branches and hired non-members, showed how the movement has been hijacked.

True Afrikanists will instead meet at Orlando Communal Hall to restore the PAC’s mandate.

We reject the GNU, whose parties oppose our mission of ending white domination and reclaiming African land. | Mapo Phaahle wa Mokoena GaMasemola

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