The report by your journalist Thabiso Mochiko in Business Watch ("Soft issues", June 4) is not accurate and has damaged the Neotel brand in thr public domain.
The statement that "there are cultural clashes" brewing at Neotel is not supported by facts, and neither is the referral to animosity between South African Indian employees of Neotel and those who have been seconded to the company by Tata Communications. No such issues have been brought to our attention, which means that it is pure speculation.
It is of great concern to me that Mochiko was willing to damage a good corporate reputation in pursuit of a story.
Basic ethics of modern day progressive journalism require journalists to identify and quote their sources directly.
When I wrote in my reply to her that Neotel does not respond to rumours in the market, I was challenging her to reveal her source so that I could better understand the context of her question. What if the "faceless market" is a disgruntled former employee or even worse, someone working for one of our competitors?
Neotel is a young and vibrant company with a cosmopolitan mixture of employees from different backgrounds, including colleagues from India. We are proud of our association with majority shareholder Tata Communications because it brings a wealth of experience to our business.
It is true that Neotel cannot risk being sidetracked from the bigger task of competing in the marketplace, but perhaps your journalist can play her part by desisting from repeating lies in the hope that they will eventually become true.
Wandile Zote
Executive head: Corporate Communications & Branding
Neotel
Your story, (Zuma's job target met with disbelief, June 4), refers. We should all rally together and help our president in achieving his job target. This is not impossible.
We need to stand together as employers, unions and labour law administrators to ensure that we start running on the road of job creation. Although we might fall short, we have no excuse if we do not at least embark on meeting this target.
We can learn from European jurisdictions where the first year of a persons employment is exempt from unfair dismissal legislation. It is also noted that Zuma aims to cut red tape, which holds small companies back. If these regulations are loosened, coupled with the exemptions for small business and new employees, we would find a new flow in job creation.
Michael Bagram
Cape Town
Business Report banner headlines on June 4 "Zuma's job target met with disbelief" after about 500 000 jobs are pledged to be created by year-end.
This astonishing statement is said to be met with incredulity by economists and analysts alike. How on earth can such a target be met in recessionary times?
Our "experts" have failed to recognise that such a target can be surpassed with relative ease by simply, at the stroke of a pen, increasing by 500 000 the number of jobless taken on to the government payroll.
And how does the government meet the cost? Even more simple - increase taxes. The result? Paradise within a decade or so as everyone will be employed by the state and we will not have to worry about mundane matters like productivity or inflation.
Peter Quantrill
Kloof
I refer to the extensive coverage of food inflation in Business Report of June 3.
As a consumer it seems to me that in their efforts to justify the market's delay in feeding through the falling agricultural prices to the supermarket shelves, the various analysts, agricultural economists, commentators and old wives concerned were indulging in pure spin and their arguments were simply not believable.
Everything they said in an attempt to justify the delay should surely have applied equally to cause a similar delay in the reflection of rising producer prices in consumer prices. On the contrary, the rising agricultural prices were felt within days.
BWalters
Somerset West
The article by Slindile Khanyile ("SA's hosting of world events will lure global airlines back to Durban", June 5) raises some interesting issues. One of those is whether or not real international flights will in fact utilise the facility.
Emirates has indicated that it will use the facility, but one has to ask whether this will be the case given the dire straits Dubai finds itself in during this financial crisis.
Terry Bengis
LA Mercy Airport Enviromental Forum