Exploring the mysteries of the universe and the history of South Africa

Untold mysteries the universe holds

Have you ever wondered  how vast the universe is? Do our little minds know? Or were  you too busy worrying about mundane day to day issues to worry about what's happening up in the sky? Or did you think what is the point about worrying about the universe when it's  beyond human comprehension?

Of course, if you are one of the millions grovelling in the dirt to make a living you would not bother to look up at the sky. There are not just 2 million  or 2 billion but 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe! If we had to  write it down in figures, it could stretch all the way from earth to the moon.

Yeah, not stars and planets but galaxies, each with billions and billions of stars. And if you add the very high probability that each star is hiding several planets circling around it,  then you could be forgiven for throwing up arms in despair and giving up thinking about the cosmos. 

The late Carl Sagen put it aptly when he said that there are more stars in the universe than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world! Each day Hubble, JWST and other earth- bound telescopes reveal more and more amazing mysteries of the universe. it has now dawned on scientists that galaxies with high radio wave transmissions could be home to advanced civilizations.

As wonderful as the earth is, it is not the only planet on the cosmos. As of today 6000 exoplanets have been discovered. Planets are not easy to find. But using the law of probability, there could be  trillions and trillions of planets in the universe, many of which could be earth-like.

What is even more remarkable is that it has all that the earth has is in the universe- water, air, plants, insects and animals.   And there could be many like us. And what if there are many Gods in the universe like what the ancient civilisations, the Greeks, Romans, Hindus and many other ignorant  tribes believed?

That's why I still maintain the Bible is open to question. While we should respect people's beliefs and customs it doesn't mean that we should not question outdated beliefs.

Have you noticed something? Though we are only scratching the surface, we already know so much about the cosmos. The deeper we delve into the universe the more startling revelations come to the surface, making  the story of biblical creation a fairytale.   

The trouble with us is that  the moment we pop out of our mother' s womb  we are brainwashed by religious doctrine  that the earth is the only one of its kind in the cosmos.  We  must concede that the Bible and other religious books were written  at a time when  science  was non-existent and religious teaching dominated, often by  men who had no scientific knowledge whatsoever.

And if they had, it wasn't in the interests of the religious institutions to promote any ungodly loop doctrine that challenged the word of God. Which brings me to this important question: how could it  be the word of God when so many men wrote it over many years?

If I had lived  in  medieval times I would have  been declared a heretic and burnt at the stake. Luckily I have just Dr Duncan du Bois and Oosthuizen to contend with.

Which brings me to another important point. It doesn't mean that there are many other habitable planets in the cosmos that  we must lay waste to our beautiful planet for the simple reason that  the  nearest exoplanet, Proxima Centauri B, is 4, 2 light years away. 

It is virtually impossible to reach it with our present technology. That's why it is important to  take care of our earth. It is our only home for the moment and is a window into the vast cosmos.

All what we see on our planet could be in the cosmos. The universe could be teeming with life.

T Markandan 

KLOOF

Honouring our Amakhosi while protecting KZN’s municipal budgets

As KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rolls out pension and medical aid benefits for traditional leaders, sustainability – not symbolism – must guide how traditional leadership is funded. As the custodians of culture and community, Amakhosi deserve dignity, stability, and recognition for their lifelong service. The DA supports the principle of providing for their welfare.

However, this cannot come at the cost of collapsing municipal budgets. The vast majority of KZN’s municipalities are already failing: water systems leak, refuse piles up, roads crumble, and electricity is unreliable. Meanwhile, to date, little clarity has been provided on how the new Amakhosi pension and medical aid benefits will be funded long-term, raising concerns about whether municipal support, disaster response, and development will be further compromised.

Already, the bulk of CoGTA’s budget goes to salaries and traditional leadership support, leaving little for disaster readiness and service delivery. During floods or fires, municipalities scramble to respond without sufficient resources. KZN cannot afford to deepen this vulnerability by committing to new obligations without a clear funding plan.

There is a better way forward.

As a partner within KZN’s Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), the DA has argued for Community Land Corporations under traditional councils. Nearly a third of KZN’s land is held under the Ingonyama Trust – land that carries immense cultural significance but remains underutilised.

If harnessed correctly, communal land could generate revenue through eco-tourism, agriculture, renewable energy, and small business hubs. This would create jobs, build financial security for traditional leadership, and fund bursaries and clinics – without draining municipal budgets.

Supporting KZN’s traditional leaders should never mean undermining municipalities, disaster management, or job-creating township development. When municipalities fail, it is residents who pay the price.

KZN needs a balanced approach: guaranteed state support for traditional leadership, paired with innovative, revenue-generating models that strengthen municipalities. Traditional councils should be guardians of culture and engines of development. By unlocking the value of communal land, they can become catalysts for resilience, dignity and prosperity.

Honouring our Amakhosi must go hand in hand with protecting KZN’s municipal budgets – because dignity for leaders and service delivery for communities are not competing goals, but two sides of the same coin.

Marlaine Nair, MPL

DA KZN Spokesperson on CoGTA

The jaundiced emptiness of decoloniality 

With his belief that South African history began only in 1994, Julius Malema would endorse Professor Dasarath Chetty’s view that in order to cleanse and deodorise the present, reminders of the past in the form of statues and monuments should be toppled and removed (POST, October 1-6).

Given his academic mooring as a sociologist, it is puzzling that by advocating the erasure of reminders of past eras, Chetty does not appreciate that such action erases a sense of identity. For it is only against the past that an identity can be profiled and understood. Every week POST newspaper carries articles celebrating the lives of individuals whose achievements are a measure of how they navigated the difficulties of the past.

Progress cannot be gauged without antecedents. The removal of all optical relics erected in South Africa before 1994, would diminish if not cancel the meaning of liberation since 1994. If in that historical limbo new statues and monuments were erected to celebrate the role of those who brought liberation, what people had been liberated from would be a blank page.

Nothing has meaning without context. George Orwell illustrated that when he said history stopped when every record and statue had been rewritten or removed. Nothing would exist except the endless present.

What is particularly deplorable about Chetty’s perspective is that it is completely lacking in objectivity. He is dead wrong in claiming that indigenous languages were suppressed in South Africa.

In 1861 Bishop Colenso published the first English-Zulu dictionary and translated the New Testament into Zulu. Natal magistrate James Stuart built up an archive of African oral history over a lengthy period from the 1890s painstakingly filling hundreds of notebooks with reminiscences and interpretations of traditions which are not only a unique and invaluable mirror of the past but an archive preserving Zulu culture.

Whatever one wants to say about apartheid, the cornerstone of the Bantustan system provided for the nurturing and propagation of the various African languages and cultures. In that vein, Chetty’s completely negative view of the past cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. Even the most jaundiced proponent of what he terms ‘decoloniality’ should acknowledge that before 1994  benefits were derived from the introduction of the wheel and Christianity, the ending of slavery, better forms of clothing, medicine and infrastructure, paper and writing.

Chetty’s deprecation of the legacy of colonial borders has no basis because, with the exception of Eritrea, the spatial integrity and borders inherited from colonialism have been jealously maintained by every African state.

What is missing from his ‘decoloniality’ is what his ilk would enshrine in its place. Having sanitised the minds of the formerly oppressed, how do the corrupt, dysfunctional despotisms that rule liberated Africa qualify for statues and monuments? How is their legacy liberating?

The past cannot be altered but its stains, records and relics serve as stepping stones to the present. With the exception of the Malemas of this world, most people look to the past for  identity, understanding, and where appropriate, appreciation. For many it’s a smorgasbord of heritage. But as for those who see only darkness and oppression in the past and exploit it to propagate hate, they are best disdained and ignored.

Dr Duncan Du Bois

Bluff

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