State allows the looters to roam free

So the government says it is going to ensure there are more rape kits in police stations? This is only one link in a long, broken chain. Ironically, statistics show that most ANC voters are women. Cognitive dissonance of the highest order.

Why are the opposition parties not attracting women voters? This is how democracy is supposed to work. And what about demeriting those policemen who have not ensured that each police station has rape kits? Don’t pay their bonuses.

The country is collapsing because every civil servant operates with impunity. We should reward success, not failure. Yet what does the government do? It begs people, civil servants, rioters, men, truck burners and gangsters to mend their ways. People will not mend their ways unless there are consequences. In all normal societies, governments lock up criminals, not cajole them. And they lock them up for many years, not one or two.

The underlying problem of the lawlessness is ideology and culture — it is how we do things. The looters at the top are still walking around and none have been arrested except some whistleblowers.

The Zondo commission is investigating only the tip of the iceberg. What about the municipalities, state-owned enterprises and government departments? There are thousands of different networks, not only the Zupta network. Democracy only works if one holds the ruling party to account by voting it out of power, not marching, protesting and spouting pious platitudes.

The ANC will first have to mend its ways before the rapists, looters and murderers will.

Naushad Omar, Athlone

Africa’s electorate ignored

Robert Mugabe was the most intellectually gifted of all who led Africa’s postcolonial rule. He also possessed an iron will. Yet he destroyed Zimbabwe’s future, the goodwill of the world at large, and its viable economy with its strong agricultural sector, when he allowed his thugs to grab the land mostly owned by whites and his black critics. Killings went unpunished, such was his vindictive nature.

When the African bloc arrive to bury their “Caesar”, his despotic rule will be ignored, as will the death of 20,000 innocent peasants by his Fifth Brigade, when they carried out Gukurahundi because it was in the stronghold of Joshua Nkomo, his political opponent.

His destructive campaign made many of his opponents homeless as his reign of terror continued. This was in keeping with the culture of entitlement that occupies part of the psyche of African leaders in which the electorate is seen as of no consequence and corruption belongs to those in power.

If Africa is to emerge as a credible participant it must jettison its antediluvian cultural beliefs, and its people need to realise their self-worth, otherwise the likes of Mugabe and Mobutu Sese Seko will continue to emerge.

Ted O’Connor, Albertskroon

Both sides on Buthelezi

Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s piece in the Sunday Times (“Mthombothi has strung together a tissue of lies about my political career”, September 8) is adroitly written by a man so well liked by many, including myself.

His venting concerning Barney Mthombothi’s statements is unimportant to readers and people like myself, because both Mthombothi and Buthelezi are a congenial species who are adroit at their respective occupations.

Both also enjoy acclaim in our country. Moreover, the Sunday Times is to be applauded for publishing articles by these two respected South Africans, with antithetical views, giving credence to the audi alteram partem rule.

Kudos for fair journalism.

Nathan Cheiman, Northcliff

Demographic dividends

I read Peter Bruce comments (“Why it makes sense to build the goddamned train”, September 8) regarding the phenomenon known as “secular stagnation” with great interest.

In a recent self-published book, Ageing Wealth — An Unequal Problem, I argue that secular stagnation has been an economic problem in Japan since the late 1980s and has become a major problem in developed Europe. In both cases the key driver is demographic shift — the workforce is getting a lot older.

With that comes significant and longlasting changes in consumption, investment and saving patterns.

Secular stagnation is not a problem in SA. We should be reaping a demographic dividend due to the age of our workforce. The fact that we are not is primarily due to hopelessly low levels of productivity in SA even when compared with the rest of SubSaharan Africa. It will take more than building a high-speed train from Johannesburg to Durban to kick-start employment and growth, but I like the thinking as a start.

John Kinsley, Robertson

Buyer of Nkandla beware

So the liquidators of VBS Mutual Bank could be seizing Jacob Zuma’s prized Nkandla property because Zuma owes VBS R7.3m in a loan agreement for his infamous security upgrades.

It looks like the corrupt chickens could be coming home to roost, and irony is seldom so beautiful as Zuma did use some of these funds to build a very secure chicken coop for them. I bet Zuma regrets this feature bitterly now. The only thing is the liquidators will be very lucky if they can find a buyer for a R7.3m Nkandla that cost R249m to build to cover their loss made because the property has an unmarketable stigma about it. Best to use it as leverage to try to recover some more looted funds from Zuma?

Robert Nicolai, Howick

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