The weapon of mass destruction that could set South Africa ablaze

Letters to the editor

Enough war, enough bloodshed in Gaza

A Palestinian told me that in Gaza, the word ceasefire means, “we (Palestinians) cease and they(Israelis) fire”.

Since the truce/ceasefire, or whatever you want to call it, came into effect in Gaza, the occupation has committed more than 194 violations. Over 241 Palestinians have been martyred.

The Zionist state of Israel is a genocidal, suicidal and maniacal creation that thrives on blood letting, violence and suppression to grow. It is a festering malignant tumour on the face of the planet.It had caused nothing but division, aggression, hatred and sorrow in the world.

Anyone who believes that any god would sanction or order the murder of children is not a god, but a manifestation of evil.

That God has been used as a scapegoat to clothe Israel’s actions in divine garments, is beyond reprehensible. Zionism is not religious. It is secular. It is anti-Semitic and morally repugnant.

Theodore Herzl, the architect of Zionism, decided that Palestine must be the national homeland of the Jewish people – not God.

This whole “God’s chosen people” nonsense is enough to make atheists of us all.

Enough war. Enough bloodshed. The gods of war have had enough. They have seen enough. Gaza has tested their upper limits of how much destruction and death they can tolerate.

Even though these mighty gods of war that have overseen genocides, massacres and violence throughout the ages, they have not yet come across anything that comes close to the slick, merciless and remorseless way Israel has perfected the art of killing.

Even these ruthless beings who reign over graveyards, skulls and bones, have had to turn away from the graveyards of Gaza.

Enough. We have had enough slaughter. | Z Khan Durban

Gary Player’s wealth in context

It is a pity that Ebrahim Essa’s hidebound outlook on life prevents him from recognising individual greatness in the case of Gary Player.

This is starkly apparent by Essa’s accusation of “racist behaviour” because Player “participated in a segregated sport.”

Would Player have redeemed himself if he had sold his clubs and stayed at home, Mr Essa? Would that same reasoning then apply to other great apartheid-era sportsmen like the Pollock brothers in cricket and Shaun Tomson in surfing?

What Essa ignores is that Player’s wealth was accumulated by his success in golf tournaments overseas – not at the expense of non-whites in South Africa. But for their benefit, via the Gary Player Foundation, thousands of disadvantaged youngsters over decades have been recipients of Player’s philanthropy.

By failing to acknowledge that, Mr Essa destroys the credibility of his claim that Gary Player was no hero.

It is also unfortunate that he disparages Gary Player’s wealth by lumping it as part of the worn-out, inaccurate platitude that whites control 80% of the country’s wealth. That figure is simply not true because most of the wealth of the Oppenheimers and Ruperts is offshore.

What needs to be placed in a true context is that blacks now outnumber whites in the top 10% of earners.

Equally pertinent is that Mr Essa’s Moslem community, which constitutes 2% of the population, significantly contributes 12% of the GDP.

Perhaps Mr Essa could tell us what percentage of the country’s wealth they control so that we can have a more diverse and objective view of the spread of wealth. | DUNCAN DU BOIS Bluff

Poverty is at the heart SA’s problems

SIR

The biggest ticking time bomb we have in our imbalanced country is massive poverty involving more than 50 million of our brothers and sisters.

Make no mistake, poverty is a weapon of mass destruction that could set this country ablaze.

It was poverty that served as a catalyst during the chaos of 2021 that came so close to decimating our country.

The main cause of all the unrest in our Rainbow Nation is poverty.

Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society. For building peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives.

As we seek to strengthen the fabric of our fragile and divided society, there needs to be a concentrated focus on the root causes of instability, conflict and confrontation everywhere. The danger signals are unmistakably clear.

The co-existence of a world of wealth and prosperity and a world of poverty and misery is too profound a contradiction to be ignored. | Farouk Araie Johannesburg

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