Everyone loves KFC, but this chicken is not finger-licking good, and this new golf course sucks

Nothing finger licking good about this

The government had shown over and over again how inept it is in running a business. None of the politicians have any business acumen just have big mouths, yet they want to be in charge of huge national enterprises, like Eskom and Transnet!

All the SOE’s are mismanaged, inefficient and corrupt. Every year these dysfunctional state entities need handouts to stay alive. And the state readily bails them out. It is not its own money but someone else’s – the taxpayer. See what fat pay cheques the officials take home even if they perform dismally. How lucky they should consider themselves.

Then the government thought it had a lot of experience in running the SOE’s and so it entered the highly competitive chicken market. It planned to undercut chicken prices and give established market leaders like Rainbow, Astral and Country Bird a run for their money.

It would be another ambitious government enterprise and make more millionaires.

Money to fund such an enterprise was no problem because the PIC, the investment arm of the Government Pension Fund was there to use. No sooner had it established Daybreak Farm at Delmas than all went wrong. With no experience or expertise in the poultry business, Daybreak Farms soon got into serious financial difficulty.

It approached Big Daddy for a bailout and the PIC had no choice but help its struggling, delinquent child with a cash injection of R74 million. But this proved to be futile.Someone leaked the plight of the chickens to the SPCA which got a court order to inspect the farm, where a harrowing sight greeted them.

The most hardy of them were left horrified and dumbstruck. Even before they could enter the chicken houses, an unbearable, stench filled the air. Over a million birds were starving and in a skeletal state and resorting to cannibalism to stay alive. They had never seen such cruelty before. The SPCA had a momentous job on its hands.

It managed to save 500 000 of them by transferring them to other chicken producers but 350 000 had to be culled – all at the expense of non- profit organisation. No help was forthcoming from the board of Daybreak Chickens. Probably they were busy tucking into finger-licking Kentucky in their air-conditioned offices far from the rotten stench pervading the air in Delmas.

Daybreak Chickens has been placed under business rescue. But its parent, PIC hasn’t abandoned its wayward child. After all, it’s only state pension money! The matter is now before parliament. The PIC has been accused of being charitable with money that belongs to pensioners!

Hmm, everyone loves Kentucky fried chicken but Daybreak Chickens will make you retch! | T Markandan Kloof

Plan a trick to change voting outcomes

A storm is brewing in regard to the demarcation of Mobeni Heights and Havenside into Lamontville.

I wish to express my support for the community and the civic team’s efforts to contest the proposed ward boundary changes. The campaign, titled “Stop the Split”, is gaining traction among residents who mostly oppose the alterations that would relocate Mobeni Heights and parts of Havenside into Lamontville.

It is imperative for both the civic team and the residents to advocate vigorously to ensure that our collective voice is heard. It is crucial to acknowledge that boundaries are intended to protect communities, not to create divisions.

Should these changes happen, the resulting disruption to community cohesion and identity would be detrimental. Local businesses and services would likely suffer as a result.The motivation behind the Municipal Demarcation Board’s proposed adjustments, specifically the alteration of voting patterns in an effort to change electoral outcomes,is both disheartening and unacceptable.

Ward boundary changes should prioritise fairness, an aspect overlooked in this instance.

Thanks go to the civic team, led by Denzil Devan, for their tireless efforts to safeguard our community’s identity. Well done to the majority of the residents; your commitment and passion indeed make a substantial impact. | Dhayalan Moodley Mobeni Heights

New golf course leaves a lot be desired

I had the privilege of playing at the new Zimbali Lakes golf course in Ballito recently, and although it has some interesting holes and decent putting surfaces, the lack of ocean views and service levels left a sense of disappointment.

I love playing new courses, but my excitement was prematurely ruined by the incredibly expensive rates, coupled with an almost non-existent halfway house, and too many young staff members trying to enforce very stringent rules upon us as we tried to find their way around the massive, incomplete estate.

The course winds its way through sugar-cane fields, meandering over and around large hills, with some very undulating holes, of which some are fun to play.

It’s a pity that perhaps the course opened a month too soon, as logistically, I feel, it is a complete failure. The impression has been created that this is a whole new golfing experience.I am sure the golf estate will get better over time, and like any new golf course, it will mature into a more playable, well-organised, operation, but the rates are ridiculous, the food very average, and there is a perception, at least, that this luxurious setting is being managed in such a way that it reminds you of a mother being overprotective of her newborn baby, faffing over it like a hen over it’s eggs.

This kind of overkill-approach eliminates the whole enjoyment factor.

My advice to the team of managers at Zimbali Lakes would be to firstly drop the rates, cut out the overkill-­approach when it comes to ON-COURSE monitoring of players and at least give us decent food at the halfway tent! | L Oosthuizen Durban

ANC’s dialogue plan is a complete waste

South Africans should reject the ANC’s flimsy maneuvering to engage civil society in its proposed, expensive National Dialogue.
No one needs further evidence to prove how the government, under the leadership of the ANC political party, has failed to deliver the promises of social renewal for all South Africans made in 1994.

We remain a divided South African community.

Looting and state captures have depleted coffers. ANC cadre deployment has entrenched incompetence, mismanagement and failure in almost every state owned enterprise and public service entity. Black Empowerment has essentially enriched a selected few. It is a strategy that has entrenched agency based on race.

Poor leadership, in almost every sector, is evident. A plethora of visible proof exists. There is no need to summon the nation to help pave the way forward and to mop up the debris. We are not blind. We know who is responsible for these debacles and “what needs to be done”.

Thabo Mbeki’s smooth sophistry, once again, rings hollow and utterly expedient. His ploys to discredit any opposition to this pathetic attempt to bring social renewal is telling and characteristic of ANC posturing and political engineering.

Electoral politics in South Africa has generally been a dismal failure under the leadership of the ANC. It has not even brought us closer to realising a non-racial South African nation. South Africans have shown, through their vote, what they don’t want. Critical South Africans have always been wary of a GNU.

It is yet another weak compromise like the political negotiations of 1994.No one should have availed themselves to serve on this colossal sham. It is another waste of public revenue. Money that could have been used to improve lives of many marginilised, impoverished South Africans.

All South Africans should refuse, unequivocally, to be co-opted to serve in such misleading, wasteful ANC political shenanigans as the National Dialogue. | Abu Bakr Solomons Southfield

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