Following the trial of Kelly Smith on kidnapping and human trafficking charges in the Western Cape, I am left with renewed respect for our judicial officers (the prosecution team and lawyers for the accused) in general, and for Judge Nathan Erasmus in particular.
The proceedings were held in a dignified and respectful manner, and professionally controlled by a judge who understood what his role was. Because of the respect Erasmus commanded, there was no grandstanding by defence attorneys.
It was a welcome change to witness court proceedings conducted in this manner — professional and concluded in the allotted time. This case was a complicated one but no leeway was given to endless delays and postponements due to questionable tactics employed by some counsel.
South Africa needs more of of this kind of justice.
— Derek Hellenberg, emeritus professor of family medicine
Cape Town the best for pensioners
In a recent letter (Sunday Times, May 4), Rod Baker of Fish Hoek makes the point the City of Cape Town has recognised : Many people — especially pensioners — bought and paid off their homes years ago, and while they now have a valuable asset, they may not have the income to match it.
While Cape Town already has the widest criteria for pensioner rates relief and “lifeline” electricity, the city recognises that not everyone living in homes worth R3m-R7m is wealthy or cash-flush.
For these reasons, the municipality has proposed amendments to the budget to widen the rates relief net and meaningfully lower tariff increases for homeowners, especially in the R3m-R7m band, including:
- Expanding property rates relief by extending the “first R450,000 rates-free” benefit beyond the current R5m cut-off to all homes under R7m in value;
- Raising pensioner rebate qualifying criteria higher than the current R22,000 monthly income all the way to R27,000; and
- Meaningfully reducing the “city-wide cleaning charge” for properties from R1.5m to R7.5m.
Cape Town is both the lowest cost metro in the country, and provides the only functional, forward-moving city government in the country. This is what it comes down to: while ratepayers pay more in other cities and get failing services and infrastructure in return, in Cape Town they pay lower bills and get a functional, successful city in return.
This year, Cape Town is tabling a record R40bn infrastructure budget, alongside major expansions to policing and cleaning operations, while still maintaining the lowest monthly bills of South Africa’s cities.
Consider also that, even when adjusting for a 25% higher property value, Cape Town’s monthly bills still come out significantly lower than Joburg’s for properties from R1m to the upper-middle range.
Cape Town is the most affordable city for pensioners. This is not opinion, it is fact.
— Geordin Hill-Lewis, mayor of Cape Town
It's true, Black Consciousness project is unfinished
Mathatha Tsedu (May 4) writes with anguish about the ANC-inspired decimation of black self-love since coming to power in 1994. He asks: Where will the next Steve Biko emerge from to save us from ourselves?
But is this the right question to ask; or is the question itself a much broader declaration? One that says we blacks are once again floating without direction, as was the case following the apartheid government’s crackdown on the ANC in the early 1960s.
That situation created an existential void as the racist government stripped us of citizenship with the pass “laws”, and almost all our human rights and dignity. That void was filled by global Black Consciousness (BC), led in South Africa by Steve Biko.
We’re now experiencing another existential void, after one generation of ANC government. The relevance of Tsedu’s question lays bare the fact that BC was unfinished business even during Biko’s stewardship. Such was the need for liberation from mental bondage, that only the socio-political aftermath of BC, namely equal rights for all, consumed the energies of the struggle.
Regarding the economic order, Biko would allude to a vague post-liberation economic system called African socialism which would replace Western capitalism. Now that the unfinished business of BC has been replaced by skin-bleaching and straight hair wigs, should we await another Biko or rather the emergence of our own Ibrahim Traore?
— Thabo Seseane, Johannesburg
Peter Bruce’s rarefied numbers
Peter Bruce must have been listening to Gwede Mantashe too much. He stated last week: “A company called Rainbow Rare Earths has an old phosphates mine near Phalaborwa from which it says it can extract almost 2-million tons of four of the recognised 17 rare earths a year.”
However, the company website leads one to conclude that, without a definitive feasibility study, there are no mineral reserves, and that production of the expected 1,900 tons per annum of rare earth oxide is a low confidence estimate.
Either way 1,900 tons per annum is a long way from “almost 2-million tons of four of the recognised 17 rare earths a year”. I assume the US government will conduct appropriate due diligence before committing the proposed $50m (R912m) for Phalaborwa — but you never know!
— Roger Dixon, BSc (Hons) mining, FSAIMM
You’re wrong — Middendorp’s derby record still tops
Numerous newspapers, including the Sunday Times, are reporting that a victory for Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro in the Nedbank Cup final will make him the only coach to win the Soweto derby six times. However, as Kaizer Chiefs coach, Ernst Middendorp beat Orlando Pirates at least seven times in Soweto derbies: four times in the league, once in the Telkom Knockout, once in the Absa Cup final and once in the Vodacom Challenge.
— Saul Kamionsky, Johannesburg
Time to grow up, Mr Malema
Afrikaners certainly made a mind shift regarding apartheid and turned their backs on an outdated regime which scorned the rights of the majority of South African citizens. We have learnt our lesson well and tossed the old flag into the bottom drawer. where it will never see the light of day again.
Julius Malema and his EFF party did just the opposite, proudly parading the debunked hammer and sickle flag while singing their outdated freedom song, Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer. Nobody wants a bullet through his head but this is exactly what this song implies.
Have a heart, Mr Malema. This is no innocent song — and you know it! After 30 years into our democracy, there’s no longer an excuse to spread such hatred; and with the ANC in power all these years, it is totally irresponsible and unacceptable to still blame a small minority for the woes of the past. A rainbow nation is our only option.
Mr Malema, stop acting like a child and grow up. With hatred in our hearts, freedom will continue to evade us.
— Marius Krige, Hermanus
Gagging orders need constitutional solution
Regarding protection orders used to silence journalists and activists, the solution lies in the Constitutional Court warning our lower courts against accepting cases in which the respondent is likely to claim he/she is acting in the public interest.
Suffice it to say, if the legislature had wanted companies and government departments to have the ability to prevent journalists from writing about them, it almost certainly wouldn’t have placed the mechanism for doing so in the hands of the Family Court.
— Terence Grant, Cape Town
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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