Pine trees are highly flammable

THE tragic loss of the library and archives at UCT once again warns all who will see that pine trees are highly flammable; their resins are like a petrol bomb once ignited.

There is a vociferous pine tree lobby in Cape Town that fought tooth and nail against removing pine trees and other alien vegetation from the Table Mountain park.

Two decades ago, the Cape Peninsula had days of fire which turned the sky grey, and had ash flakes fluttering down in Rondebosch Main Road. Some supporters dropped out of the pine tree lobby after that, but it still continues.

The grounds between the Rhodes memorial and UCT's border fence are crammed with pine trees.

Between them, a thick carpet of pine needles is more fuel for fire.

It is long overdue that these pines be sawn down and replaced with stinkwood, yellowwood, milkwood and other indigenous trees which are more fire resistant.

Let us do this before the next fire starts.

KEITH GOTTSCHALK | Claremont live in abject poverty, they still live in Soweto, Khayelitsha, Mdantsane, KwaMashu and in many other informal settlements that were created by the apartheid government.

This day should be called Elections Day, because it is an indescribable vanity to call it Freedom Day, which it is not. Only when the land, the stolen wealth and livestock are returned to their rightful owners can we talk about freedom.

The late Nelson Mandela hypocritically told the former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke that he respected the God of this country, Robert Sobukwe, whom he referred to as Robie, because he was an intellectual and an ideological giant, but he failed to do one of the simplest things, that led to Sobukwe turning his back on the ANC – that is, to return the land to its rightful owners.

Why continue to call this day Freedom Day when there is still no economic freedom?

MFEZEKO BUNU | Khayelitsha