Letters to the editor

Excellent letter – pity we have so little say

Your article, Digital Whiplash Is Hurting Our Children, refers:

Thank you psychologist for an excellent article. Unfortunately it reaches grandparents in stead of parents.

Grandparents have little say in the education of their grandchildren; advice is often scorned upon, albeit from experienced and professional sources. | Harold Groenewald Kenilworth

Wake up, Xaba, and smell the coffee

The high-speed rail link between Johannesburg and Durban is back in the spotlight.

It was first mooted some 15 years ago. Like all things South Africa. In truth is has only been just a talk show so far. But if it does come into reality, it would be a boon for travellers. Instead of driving for six hours on the congested N3 which is over run by trucks , it would take commuters just two hours to travel between the two cities by high speed train.

Durban mayor Cyril Xaba is urging government and financial institutions to get serious about the high speed rail link and make it a reality. He said it was time to stop the talk show and act in the interests of commuters.But I think he is asking the wrong people.

Government and politicians are not affected by the heavy traffic on the N3. They either fly by air or fly on the road. The blue-light brigade can cover the distance between Johannesburg and Durban in half the time.

Another important consideration is that time goes by slowly in South Africa. Thirty years have gone and the poor are still standing in the queue waiting for a better life.

It’s very nice of you Mr Mayor to show interest in the high-speed rail link.

But I suggest you take a look at your own back yard first before you look at the Johannesburg- Durban rail corridor Get “Go Durban” on track before you look at the high-speed rail link. Go Durban had been lying idle, gathering dust for the past 10 years. It was such an expensive project but you let the taxi industry call the shots.

Wake up, Xaba and fix Durban first before you look yonder. | T Markandan Kloof

Failure of cover-ups of denial and deceit

Watergate proved that no matter how elaborate the denial or deceit, the cover-up always unravels in the end.

Today, in the US, a series of exposures is revealing the depth of that old truth once again.

In January, mass media and California governor Gavin Newsom claimed that the devastating Pacific Palisades fires were evidence of climate change.

That narrative collapsed when Biden supporter Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested and confessed to systematically setting those fires.

The so-called “insurrection” of January 6 2021 at the US Capitol is also under renewed scrutiny. Evidence now suggests that 275 FBI agents and Antifa operatives were embedded in the crowd to provoke violence, lending weight to suspicions of political manipulation.

Dominion Voting Systems, which won a $700-million defamation suit against Fox News, has reportedly offloaded its machines amid pending indictments relating to electoral fraud.

Meanwhile, an October 8 White House report revealed that $100 million of taxpayer funds were channelled through Democratic Party-linked NGOs to finance Antifa operations in Portland and Chicago – funding that also implicates Senator Tim Kaine’s son, Woody, a known member of Antifa.

A declassified CIA document from 2016 exposes the Biden family’s close ties with corrupt Ukrainian businesses. Hunter Biden received $1 million annually from Burisma, while his father threatened to withhold US aid unless the prosecutor investigating the company was fired. Following these revelations, Donald Trump has called for a review of his impeachment, arguing it was based on false premises.

The National Institutes of Health are also under fire for approving risky gain-of-function Covid experiments at Wuhan, primarily for profit. OSHA directives encouraged employers to mandate vaccinations despite safety concerns, while suppressing reports of adverse effects.

Even New York Attorney-General Letitia James, who indicted Trump for mortgage fraud, has now been found guilty of similar offences involving two of her own properties.

As the machinery of justice grinds on, it is exposing the complicity, deception and corruption that have defined a decade of American public life. | Dr Duncan du Bois Bluff

Article was on point

I must thank Simon Majadibodu of IOL for reporting on Operation Dudula’s swift response to the recent twitterings of the former South African president, Thabo Mbeki.

What Operation Dudula, a newly registered political party, is currently doing is exposing the fault lines of Mbeki’s presidency. It is correct in saying that Mbeki should enjoy his pension and his new-found hobbies, and if I may add, his favourite cognac.

It was he who tried to sell the flawed notion of an African Renaissance, a utopia in which all Africans lived in harmony before the arrival of the pesky colonials in Africa.

Allow me to quote judiciously from Meta AI: “It’s inaccurate to portray pre-colonial Africa as a utopia of total harmony”. Peddling the notion of an African brotherhood, apart from his dangerous “science” on HIV-Aids, Mbeki allowed Mozambicans and Zimbabweans to enter our borders to purchase essential goods.

Unfortunately, many – if not most – of these folk from across our borders decided to remain here. Some even became entrepreneurs in the lucrative business of car hijacking and taking our vehicles across our borders.

Those of us who are long in the tooth remember seeing photos of Mbeki hugging the Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, and congratulating him on a free and fair election!

Now we have a few million from Mugabe-land and other parts of Africa, seeking free resources in South Africa. This is what Operation Dudula is campaigning against. I must congratulate the young leadership of this radical political party for remembering Mbeki’s political missteps.

What Operation Dudula should do is insist on foreign governments paying for the upkeep of their citizens in South African prisons. | Harry Sewlall Sandton

The price of change

Rarely have I come across a lengthy letter to your letters page that not only obliged me to read every word, but to go back and read it again.

The scribe in this instance is Moikwatlhai, Seitisho, who, I trust will not take offence at my inability to pronounce it? The piece was, in part, a tribute to an article/letter penned by Lorenzo Davids.

The letter was not only enlightening, but so well-written, using English in a manner not many of us are able to replicate. Throughout the article there was a distinct tone of sadness, loss and a hope that now (in the mind of the writer at least) seems to be forlorn, yet should be so easily achieveable.

I am of course referring to the antics and reprehensible behaviour of so many appointed government officials, from cabinet ministers to lesser employees. Their singular and collective disrespect for fellow South Africans, and carried out with apparent impunity has set this country back in its quest for Ubuntu.

This is not the dream or goals of our erstwhile leaders, such as Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and others. This type of behaviour does little else than tragically tar all black officials with the same brush! How tragic and counter-productive is that?

Your correspondent is evidently well versed in local politics and no stranger to the works and reputations of other global luminaries.

My wish is to witness daily life among all South Africans, such as that which is seen among a crowd of spectators at a Springbok rugby match. Hamba Kahle. | Bob Broom Stanford.