EC road maintenance way behind
THE DA is very disappointed that the MEC of Roads, Thandiswa Marawu, only referred to under-funding of road infrastructure in the Eastern Cape but gave no direction of how her department will catch up the R10-billion backlog in road maintenance that has accumulated over the past 17 years, when she tabled her budget and policy speech in the Bhisho Legislature.
Overgrown garden disappoints
IT is truly marvellous to see the Athenaeum being used as an art gallery. The art, regrettably, is only interesting in its diversity.
Readers’ views via SMS
THE valuation of business properties is again a Robin Hood tax. In 1994 we gave our heart away, now it costs us too much to get it back.
Municipality must fix the flash points that flood
Rubbish picking not decent work
FOR many metro residents living in the suburbs, seeing hundreds of women in their bright orange overall tops and blue pants – sometimes with gloves on their hands and certainly no masks to protect them from the horrid fumes that must be wafting from the piles and piles of rubbish they have to pick up, place in a yellow or black bag on a neat pile for collection – can only be in our imagination.
Criticism valid in democracy
SO Reuel Khoza’s comments have caused a stir – the mixture of hard-hitting criticism of leadership and the perceived threat to the democratic process (“Khoza fires back after ANC attack”, April 11).
The Herald jumps on the govt bandwagon
I REFER to the article, “Disciplinary committee replies on Malema” (April 6).
ANC eroded by members’ greed
AS an institution, the ANC has a history of organisational integrity, ethics, dedication, honesty, focus and resilience. However, most, if not all, of these virtues are gradually eroded by the corrosive greed of individuals who aspire to hold positions at the expense of the fabric of the ANC.
Khoza has right to air opinion on leadership
ATTACKS by the ANC leadership on Reuel Khoza are uncalled for (“Khoza fires back after ANC attack”, April 11).
Govt set to destroy citizens’ freedoms
FROM the Protection of State Information Bill to the proposed media tribunal, the judicial review, and now the review of the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court judgments and the constitution itself, the government is determined to hack away at our freedoms until there is nothing left but a bloody stump, while what we had lies bleeding to death under the blazing African sun.
Readers’ views via SMS
DONKEY carts should be banned for good! It makes me ill to see the owners whipping the donkeys to go faster when it’s an overloaded cart they are pulling!
Hani fought corruption, greed
CHRIS Hani was an embodiment of the alliance. He was a member of the ANC national executive committee, a long-standing tradition of the leadership of the South African Communist Party.
Shivambu’s remarks are ridiculous
NORMALLY one would not have been bothered by Floyd Shivambu’s remarks, largely because the organisational machinery for some time had been used to pursue the “new tendency” and its factional activities with impunity.
Louis exhibited golf’s true spirit
WHAT another awesome sporting feat that has played itself out on our small screens.
No road markings
IF one needs a physical demonstration of the incompetence of the Eastern Cape administration take a drive west to George.
Honest people should be elected
I AM a normal citizen of South Africa. I have no political credentials, I am only very concerned.
Some in PE live to really great age!
YOUR irrepressible correspondent Mike Jones is about as cranky as the old cars he photographs and writes about.
Convent reunion
I AM trying to find past pupils of the Assumption Convent in Grahamstown, which closed in 1976.
Focus on education injustice
LUKHONA Mnguni is so aggrieved by Helen Zille referring to Eastern Cape pupils who have moved to the Western Cape in search of better schooling, as “education refugees” that he has lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (“Activist takes ‘refugees’ to rights body”, April 5).
Unions have no role in civil service
IN reply to “Worry over Cosatu pay call,” (Herald, April 6), what are unions doing in the civil service at all?
Technical skills vital for metro
NINE of the 45 municipalities in the Eastern Cape province do not have technical directors or city engineers in their service (according to Dacre Haddon, shadow MEC for local government).
Tragedy at Easter
TRAGEDY struck Ward 32 in the late hours of Good Friday when six shacks burned to the ground, leaving 18 people homeless.
Carts deserve ox wagon fate
LAST week’s report in the Herald regarding the assault on Lorna Poulter, who was concerned about donkeys (“Woman in coma after vicious attack,” Herald April 5), was shocking and caused outrage.
Let’s unite to restore police service
IN an emergency, most citizens would rather call private security firms than the SAPS, and that’s a sad fact of life because of documented corruption, nepotism, cronyism and incompetence.
Readers’ views via SMS
SIES! What kind of animal hits a defenceless woman with a steering wheel lock? He needs to be jailed, the coward!
Let’s build on Hani legacy
ON APRIL 10 we will commemorate the life of former SACP general secretary Thembisile Chris Hani, who was killed by right-wingers Clive-Derby Lewis and Janus Walus. Comrade Chris was a disciplined and dedicated cadre of the SACP fighting for the poor people of this country.
Sad state of cemetery
I WISH to bring to the attention of the residents of the metro the lack of respect paid particularly to our cemeteries.
Readers’ views via SMS
SO now I am also a refugee? Now live in a kingdom not my country RSA. Thank you, his excellency Dr Zuma. As seen at Coega IDC.
Call for ban on all rhino hunting
RHINO poaching and the exploitation of South Africa’s threatened wildlife from certain unethical game farmers and poachers has gone on for far too long. All they and some government officials see are profits. Corruption and greed is rife at every government level and in the hunting fraternity!
Allow people to build own homes
MR R Memma of Kliprand has the right idea. Some people have been waiting an eternity for their promised RDP houses and then they are often of such bad quality, people cannot live in them.
What a rubbish job indeed
MANY residents living in the metro suburbs, see women everyday in their bright orange overall tops and blue pants with gloves and, certainly, no masks to protect them from the horrid fumes that must be wafting from the piles and piles of rubbish they have to pick up, place in a yellow or black bag on a neat pile for collection.
Increase in petrol price huge blow
IT is a huge blow for South African consumers the price of a petrol is going up again.
ANC hates to be told the truth
Under Zuma’s regime South Africa is becoming a dictatorship.
Banks must come clean on charges
WE ARE always told by economists, some of whom work for the big banks, to what extent the petrol price, Eskom tariffs, low exports and high imports have an effect on our economy, but never make mention how much banking fees are impacting on us.
DA stands for all in SA
I WOULD like to respond to a letter in the Tuesday April 3, 2012 edition of the Herald entitled “DA Facing Dilemma”.
Readers’ views via SMS
THE ANC will find fault with everything the DA says or does. Simply because they want to take the focus off all their failures.
Ours is a free country
I BET like in the Middle Ages, a Renaissance-inspired Helen Zille would have liked the ancient cities surrounded by a moat filled with crocodiles – a Western Cape with gates that are open at certain times to keep control on the influx of refugees from the Dark Ages Eastern Cape.
Fight individuals not organisation
GRAHAM Nosworthy wrote that “factions are dividing the ruling party” and in his ill-conceived, ill-advised and politico-ideological deformed view charged that a “firm hand is needed in the ANC”.
Serving the people is off the menu
I AM a third-year sport management student at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
St Death ritual practised globally
REGARDING the AP article “Mexican police investigate poor border family in Saint Death ritual murders of two boys, woman” (April , 2012).
North Sea disaster awaits Karoo
IMAGINE a similar scenario in the Karoo if Shell, or any of the gas and oil giants, are allowed to go ahead with fracking.
DA facing dilemma
THE by-elections of March 28 were surely a cul-de- -sac for the Democratic Alliance not only in Nelson Mandela Bay, but also nationally.
Officials off the mark
MY daughter participated in an athletics competition in Germiston this past week and returned with a 14-year-old more of an emotional wreck than anything else.
Bay artists too mum on injustices
I AM perplexed by the deafening silence among Port Elizabeth artists who live and operate in the midst of unjust government practices directed at them in particular, and the arts fraternity in general.
Readers’ views via SMS
Is Absa sponsorship of R500-million to Bafana Bafana reason for the firing of more than 2000 workers? This money would have saved those jobs.
Overgrown pavements, curbs
IN Newton Park there are two intersections that are becoming more dangerous by the day due to overgrown pavements and curbs.
True MK soldiers would not resort to factional battles
IF IT is true what I read about “MKMVA” wanting to embark on a “Siyaziqesha Campaign” and to “remove any stumbling block force” (The Herald, March 28), to me, they are nothing but a bunch of wannabe revolutionaries who fail to understand the governing laws of the very same party they are purporting to “defend”.
Simple solutions to true transformation for all
IT IS regrettable that the state of our beloved city, Port Elizabeth, is in a mood of perverse confusion, with the key trends being uncertainty (especially in the fields of local government and national politics), with ominous warnings about electricity blackouts, and a monolithic plan to re-register some 15 million recipients of state handouts.
Grateful to all for assistance after house burnt down
PETER, Suzette and Kayla Heckford would like to thank everyone who helped after our house burnt down in Strelitzia Park, Uitenhage.
Telecoms expert’s ‘modern’ blooper
TELECOMMUNICATIONS specialist Dumisa Ngwenya says in The Herald of March 22, regarding residents’ complaints about television and telephone signal disruptions from the new tower for the SAPS, that “modern equipment should not cause disruptions with signals”.
Persuade people to build own houses
‘IT IS frustrating to witness politicians’ posturing and grandstanding while the people are suffering.
Bun currant worker ordeal
ONE has to feel sorry for the poor worker in the bakery at the Third Avenue Spar who has to stand for hours each day making sure that he or she adds one and, only one, single currant to each hot cross bun which goes by.
All need to help social upliftment
I THINK while we have so many strikes and civil campaigns, South Africans should also engage in broadening our activities towards social issues.
Article source: http://www.peherald.com/news/article/5563
