You have your say via WhatsApp and letters

Read the latest reactions from our readers giving commentary on our topical articles this past week.

Logan from Verulam:

I could not agree more with Zweika Asmal’s WhatsApp about your parochial, one-eyed letter writer L Ooshuizen. He gives peace-loving people everywhere, but especially Israelis a bad name, and as well as Christians. Just who is he to invoke the Bible and the name of God. There is absolutely no justification for the annihilation of Gaza. Right at the beginning of Israel’s invasion, Gaza authorities declared that it was Israel’s intention to seize control of the isolated enclave. ‘No, no, no’ said butcher Bibi Netanyahu’s spokesman, ‘nothing could be further from the truth’. Well that has proven to be bald-faced lie. Isn’t it ironic that the same people who were unjustly and inhumanly slaughtered in Nazi death camps are doing the same to others, and backed by the so-called ‘democracy loving’ United States of America – the most war-like of all nations and one frequently that invades other countries in the name of peace, only to leave them a bloody mess. If there is one country that could stop the Yids, it’s America. Instead it arms and tacitly encourages them. Nonetheless, it doesn’t help to have Zionist sympathisers endless banging the same drum and defending the aggressor. Is Oosthizen paid by the Israeli embassy perhaps?

Margaret from Amanzimtoti:

The Metro Police have been in the news lately and have copped a fair amount of flak, but I think they are doing a great job all round. Yesterday I broke down on the N2 near the sugar terminals. Within minutes there was van stopped behind me and the two officers arranged cones to warn others and stayed with me until the tow-truck came. Keep up the good work.

Senzo from Gillits:

Why do you have so many negative letter writers and they are all the same peeps. All they do is complain. If they don’t like it here, they should go somewhere else far away and see what it’s really like over there. Africa doesn’t need them. We need nation-builders and good people, not grumpy people. It’s easy to complain!

Letters

How can crooks in power fight crime?

The callous murder of insolvency lawyer Bouwer van Niekerk has horrified South Africans, reignited the debate around the criminal state of the country and many, includind Ruda Landman, have demanded that the minister of police take action to find the killers and who ordered the hit.

The problem is that SA’s minister of police, like its president, is compromised, completely inadequate to the job and out of his depth. He’s even had to be suspended and replaced with an acting minister, despite already having two deputies, so ineffective and compromised is his ministry and his position.

Both minister and president are backed by a corrupted and moribund ANC, 30 years mired in ineptness, scandal, corruption and now state capture.

This is the result. A country awash with crime and violence and a deputy president who is one of the biggest crooks of all. A thug with countless criminal charges and allegations against him who cannot explain how he amassed a residential property portfolio (that we know of) valued at nearly R30m over just ten years on a public office salary. A man who fails to fully disclose his assets and interests in the parliamentary register.

How can one seriously face down crime and criminal gangs, stop the hits and arrest and jail the thugs and murderers when our country’s deputy president and so many in the Cabinet, provincial executive committees and SOE boards and executives – past and present – are all themselves crooks, thugs and thieves mired up to their double chins in corruption, multibillion-rand fraud, state-sponsored theft and racketeering?

The rot starts at the very top and all that Ramaphosa can do or say is that he is “shocked”.

For shame. | Mark Lowe Durban

Service of Psalms marks 40 years

It was exactly 40 years when Paddy Kearney was detained without trial.

While in gaol, he drew great comfort from reading the Book of Psalms.

To reflect on this, we will be hosting an ecumenical service of Psalms of Suffering and Hope at St James Church, Venice Rd, Morningside this Sunday, at 5pm on September 14.The service will include scripture readings in Hebrew and English, and also a modern-day psalm by a young Zulu poet.

All are welcome.

Clergy from Christian denominations who wish to robe and participate are encouraged to do so. Please email in advance. | Leanne Banks Denis Hurley Centre, ([email protected])

Profits, politics and the pandemic

We live in very interesting times right now.

Multiple organisations who are supposed to exist for the betterment of humanity, are being hijacked and weaponised by nefarious characters and politicians.

Take the World Health Organisation: Why did it wait so long to inform us of the spread of the Covid-19 virus when the first cases of this disastrous disease was already allegedly rearing it’s head in China in November, 2019?

The answer is very easy! Were there are huge profits to be made out of human disaster and calamity? Clever globalists lie waiting, like predators, ready to coerce us into trusting the them with our health and resources.

Controversial characters such as Tedros Gebresius, who heads the WHO, and Big Pharma, were salivating at the prospect of a global lockdown and all of the fear mongering, and what it would ultimately produce: A World in panic, ready to believe everything it says, and boy, did many people fall into the trap of trusting these globalist puppet masters! Let’s not forget the mainstream media, who did an excellent job at inflating the numbers of infections on TV and on radio stations, only to increase fear and drive abnormal human behaviour! Individuals such as Bill Gates had long known about these man-made disasters, according to certain sources who have been following him for decades now. It’s no surprise that Gates, now funds the new “Apeel” fresh produce range, which promises freshness for longer in fruits and vegetables, only to be struck down by RFK jnr, for containing very harmful chemicals.

This is the same Mr Gates who wants to lecture us on our health choices and how to “prevent future pandemics!” | L Oosthuizen Durban

Board’s costs exceed municipal norms

A front-age article in your sister paper, The Mercury, on waterboard members’ fees refers. I believe the concerns should not be limited to board members’ fees.

The Umngeni-uThukela water board provides municipal water and sanitation services in bulk to eight municipalities and one private company, compared to the eThekwini municipality that has about 600 000 customers.

The 2023/24 annual report of the board shows the total annual salary costs for its 1 557 employees to be R640 million, or an average of R411 000 per employee – which I believe is far in excess of the average cost of most municipal employees providing a similar service.

The water board also made a profit of R1.4 billion in 2023/24 and has consistently made profits of more than R1bn over the last five years. When last calculating the actual cost of water supplied to eThekwini from one of the treatment works, compared to what is charged by the water board, the eThekwini customers were being overcharged by approximately R500m a year.

I also see the article quotes Mr Visvin Reddy, who I believe was a board member until recently of Umgeni Water and served on the board for many years.

I was also a board member for four years in the early 2000’s and recall being reimbursed for travel expenses. | Neil Macleod Durban

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