Oh come on! What are you supposed to do when attacked because the reality is you are on your own?

Letters to the editor

Malema verdict is cravenly feeble

Scrutiny of the reasons Julius Malema gives for rejecting the Equality Court’s finding that he is guilty of hate speech and incitement of violence shows that he totally rejects the essential precepts of the Constitution.

Claiming there is an “irreconcilable conflict between white supremacy and black consciousness” indicates that he is incapable of non-racialism and transformation. Given his innate hatred of whites, it automatically follows that he rejects the preamble of the constitution which declares South Africa belongs to all who live in it.

In claiming his reference to killing white people is merely “revolutionary rhetoric,” he exhibits deceit and memory lapse.

The following self-incriminating statements made by Malema under oath, excerpted from the records of the Supreme Court of Appeal, the Constitutional Court and the Gauteng High Court and published by Biznews on 23 June 2025, lay bare exactly who Julius Malema is and what he stands for: “All white people are criminals; all white people must be driven into the sea, and any white who remains here is going to be killed….it is an institutional decision.”

“Colonisation is violent. The only way to deal with violence, you must be violent. Therefore, there is nothing wrong in engaging in a revolution. Revolution itself is violence.”

“I am not scared of killing. A revolutionary is a walking-killing machine, not scared of death. If the need arises, I will kill. We are very angry. We are ready to kill.”In the light of the above excerpts, the Equality Court’s verdict that it “could be reasonably construed” that Malema “demonstrated a clear intention to incite harm” is cravenly feeble.

Worse still is the Human Rights Commission’s acclaim for the Equality Court’s judgment for “upholding constitutional values.” What perverse nonsense! Malema has grossly violated the constitution and deserves nothing less than scathing condemnation and punishment.

Vicky Momberg served two years in prison for using the ‘k’ word. Pensioner Penny Sparrow was reduced to penury by the onerous fine imposed on her for posting a single racially derogatory reference on social media.

As legal scholars Professor Koos Malan and Dr Willem Gravett have contended, the failure of the judicial system to convict Malema for graphic, unambiguous race hatred and incitement to kill is a travesty of justice.

No white person exhorting violence against blacks and their extermination would receive the kid gloves treatment Malema enjoys for expressing such intentions. | DR DUNCAN DU BOIS Bluff

Selective outrage, forgotten histories

It is deeply troubling that the DA has shown little, if any, concern over the ongoing genocide in Gaza – where thousands of innocent lives have been lost – yet finds it necessary to intervene in the travel arrangements of 2 500 South African Hajj pilgrims.

This selective outrage raises serious questions about the DA’s priorities and moral consistency. While the suffering of millions in Palestine continues, the DA has chosen to focus its energy on a matter long managed by community-driven structures with decades of experience.

The DA is urged to revisit the historical context behind the formation of the South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC). According to respected community elders such as Advocate Sheriff Mohamed of Cape Town, in the early democratic years then–Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, convened a meeting with Muslim organisations in Pretoria, calling on them to establish a unified Hajj mission to serve South African pilgrims.

This led to the creation of SAHUC – a body built to co-ordinate, represent, and ensure accountability in the interests of pilgrims. Any future discussions must therefore be grounded in this founding vision.

The DA would also benefit from studying The Cape Hajj Traditions: Past and Present by Mogamat Hoosain Ebrahim.

I call on the DA to approach such matters with historical awareness, integrity, and consistency. | MOHAMED SAEED Pietermaritzburg

The quiet death of libraries

One could write a whole thesis on the libraries that once echoed through Durban’s streets and suburbs.

Brook Street, for instance, recalls a living library opposite a dead cemetery. The silent Victoria Street branch stood at the end of a passage that opened onto a road alive with cafés serving sesame-seed naan, real oil-soaked potato chips, and frantic cinema-loving crowds snatching last-row tickets from under the noses of black-market gangsters.

Who remembers the earlier home of the “Musgrave” library, now at Glenwood – and now “temporarily” closed?

Natural evolution, it seems, deepens depression when libraries are forced to shut their doors. Many remain under-utilized, shelves of books unread, frequented mainly by schoolchildren chasing project material, adults scouring newspapers for work, and others using limited computers.

Yet the lifeblood of any library is a love of reading – something a matchbox-sized, profit-driven gizmo has virtually destroyed. Children aren’t to blame for being hooked on mobile phones; after all, every game, from gooli-danda to digital, was invented by adults chasing money, rarely caring about consequences.

Of course, the cell phone has its advantages, just as Artificial Intelligence may save lives in medicine and probe the unknown. But both threaten mass unemployment. Video killed the radio, streaming destroyed the cinema.

How many more inventions will make humans redundant? And has anyone studied the impact of these devices on hardened attitudes, extreme nationalism, neo-colonialism, and global greed?

And really – what has all this to do with the possible closure of yet another library? Everything. | Ebrahim Essa Durban

The weight of a split second

Ian Cameron and two fellow DA MPs, Nicholas Gotsell and Lisa Schickerling, were on their way to the airport after an oversight visit to the Philippi SAPS training academy on Tuesday, August, 19 when three suspects attacked their car, smashing the windows with bricks. Cameron and Gotsell were injured in the incident.

Having personally survived life-threatening attacks – during the St James Church Massacre and later in Mew Way, Khayelitsha, both occasions in which I was forced to use my firearm in self-defence – I cannot understand how anyone can question Ian’s lifesaving response.

Thank God, Ian was ready, alert, and able to protect his colleagues, and himself, in this violent attack by using his firearm. We must never forget that in such moments, criminals always hold the element of surprise. That alone makes the victim’s position perilous. Firearms can indeed take lives – but in the hands of law-abiding citizens, they can save them too.

Do mass shootings, riots, or looting typically happen in police stations, at shooting ranges, or at gun shows? No. Criminals deliberately target the unarmed – “soft” victims who cannot defend themselves.

Armed citizens will not solve all of South Africa’s crime problems. But I would far rather stand beside selfless, responsible people like Ian – armed and able – than beside unarmed neighbours who, through no fault of their own, create an easier world for criminals.

There is no logic in questioning Ian’s response, or in stripping him of his firearm, leaving him and others defenceless. Common sense must prevail .You are your own first responder. “Lord, make me fast and accurate!” | Charl van Wyk Cape Town

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