8 hours ago
Six of the best: Editor's pick of the letters you sent to us
Who is fooling who at City Hall?
What is going on within the eThekwini Metro is beyond one's understanding. A year ago, in April the city workers down tools of trade in protest of their pay scale, which is Category 8.
The strike went caused havoc and impaired service delivery. The outcry was loud and Cogta had to intervene, when, in my opinion, it was unnecessary. It was unnecessary because one of the things listed in the motivation to increase the City Manager's salary by 66.66% was that he was leading a Category-10 municipality. That alone was reason enough to award workers their demands.
Various consultations were made to verify the worker's call, but to date the issue remains unresolved, with the municipality crying about how tight the budgetary constraints are.
The City says it had insufficient funds to foot the bill, but is wasting funds in defending court cases with contractors. Additionally, the City has advertised top executive positions that have a Category-10 salary scale. So, who is fooling who instance? I fail to understand the whole setup, but maybe the citizenry can dissect the situation, because it judged the workers in their actions.
This is not an ideal situation to make a discourse, but the City management needs to provide leadership and furnish answers or another action by the workers will be justified, soon, I guess. | Concerned citizen (name withheld at editor's discretion)
The DPP and her NPA office are inept
Following the grave miscarriage of justice recently regarding the Omotoso case, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) now has more egg on its face with the extradition M Cholota – the ex-personal assistant of former Free State Premier Ace Mageshule – being ruled as unlawful.
Much of the ineptitude and gross shoddiness of the under-performing NPA is a sad reflection of Shamilla Batohi, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).She is in the same inferior league as the former Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who was booted out of office owing to poor performance.
The new DPP will be appointed in 2026, but why is Batohi not shown the door immediately due to her ongoing failure to deliver? Is it because she is an ANC crony and lackey?Please, President Cyril Ramaphosa save our beloved country from continuing to be a laughing stock, especially in the international arena.
You must make relevant appointments to senior public offices with competence, merit, credibility and integrity being minimum requirements.
Shame on the relevant parliamentary portfolio committee for accepting the half-baked responses and other hogwash of the DPP in various sittings.
Like her, most committee members are buffoons and are doing the country a great disservice.
Enough is enough! | Simon T Dehal Verulam
US-influenced UN in need of overhaul
One would have wished that the UN Gaza ceasefire resolution, that is shaped by international law, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and principles of social justice, would have received unanimous vote, but, sadly and regrettably, it was vetoed by the US.
The UN call, which was supported by 14 of the 15 members of the Security Council, was for the fifth time rejected by the US, making it the only country to vote against the urgent appeal for an 'immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire' in apartheid Israel's war on Gaza.
The grossly ineffective UN Security Council which was established under the UN Charter to maintain international peace and security needs urgent reform to manage real-life global realities, issues and challenges that have changed since its establishment in 1945/6 when the UN Charter was adopted. | MOHAMED SAEED Pietermaritzburg
How wonderful to see Trump, Musk fall out
It was like manna from heaven to see the Donald Trump/Elon Musk bromance finally come to an end.
The battle of the Titans was always destined to end in failure as it could be likened to King Kong taking on Godzilla … there could be no winner. The US president got his way by using Musk's ATM to squeeze his way into the White House – had it not been for Musk's financial backing, Trump wouldn't even have gotten into the Oval Office toilet !
Musk doesn't need Trump. He has oodles of money and has more than made his mark. It is, however, not dollar bills that measures a man's worth but the legacy he leaves.
Musk now has a golden opportunity to put his wealth into a worthy cause and at the same time stick it to Trump!
The Gaza conflict is calling.
Sort that out and Musk will go down in history as the man who did what Trump failed to do, by instigating peace in the Middle East Musk's name will be etched in history as the man who did what no one could do for over a thousand years !
Now that's a challenge and what a legacy that would be. | Colin Bosman Newlands
Why aren't we celebrating her?
Is South Africa's first black female winemaker, Carmen Stevens, being afforded the recognition she deserves in the 'Rainbow Nation' for having achieved turning her childhood dream into a winemaking legacy? | Eric Palm Gympie, Queensland, Australia
Shameful message of such letter-writers
Some letter writers are called 'bullies' because they insist that the message of the day – the genocide in Palestine – should be shouted out loudly and continuously for all to hear, until this heartbreaking, very dark and heinous episode ends.
And so the cries of these writers are halted. Perhaps because it upsets advertisers or other vested interest in certain newspapers!
This selective opinion blackout obviously makes the media that fails to assist readers to voice their opinions based on established human rights, and possibly complicit in the genocide.'Selective', because some writers (actually just a pair of them) constantly side with Trump regarding the ' kill the boer' US President Donald-narrative, which begs the question: Why have, they not joined the flotilla of selected Afrikaner farmers making their way down the Mississippi towards a glorious future. In America?
These writers are forever also siding with Israel calling it a ' fantastic' country while calling Iran a 'fanatical' state! Israel, the state that does something that has probably never been tried before: Luring starving Palestininians with the promise of scraps of food, then callously shooing them!How can humans in this country actually still side with a lunatic fringe like these Zionists in Israel?.
Zionists whose neo-religion is their own modern invention which has nothing to do with Judaism?It's a very sad indictment on the press in this country which is actually fully permitted the proverbial 'freedom of the press', a concept that seems to be increasingly obstructed in other, so-called 'democratic' countries.
These writers treacherously side with Israel against the ICC and IJC charges initiated by our very own South African legal system, while nobody else around the world has the actual acumen to do anything close to this!All very shameful! | Ebrahim Essa Durban
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