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8 OPINION CAPE TIMES THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012
THE ANC Youth League has no wish tochase whites into the sea, says JuliusMalema, for which we pale ous shouldall be grateful.
For some, the assurance comes a lit-tle late. Those are the tens of thousandswho thought they would rather fly offover the sea than be herded into it, andhave long since packed for Perth, Syd-ney, Auckland, Toronto and a host ofother cities where they form largecolonies who cheer themselves up byshouting Vrystaaaat! at inappropriatemoments and buying Mrs Ball’s Chut-ney at special shops.
They miss South Africa madly, visitwhenever they can afford to, and lovehearing about the ANC government’sexcesses, to justify their decision toleave.
Some among those of us who arehappy at being allowed to remain on dryland may regard Malema’s next remarkas a quid pro quo for the privilege.Addressing a crowd of 1 000 at a Not-the-ANC-Centenary celebration near Bloem-fontein, he said that in 10 years therehad to be white domestic servants.
Probably there are some already.Maybe in 10 years’ time domestic servicewill be a sought-after occupation, withaffirmative action being applied to givepreference to black applicants. If that is
the case, we should be grateful toMalema for pleading the right of whitesto compete for such jobs.
A lot of us are experts at our ownhousework, and can make beds, sweepthe floor and do the washing-up as wellas anybody, though my wife freelyadmits she is domestically challenged.Over the years we have also had char-ladies to teach us the finer points, exem-plary women, for the most part, whohave played memorable roles in ourlives.
Josephine was one such, a pillar ofher church, who took no nonsense fromanybody and who, when I visited her inher retirement, would always greet mewith “Mr John, why you so fat?”, thoughI’ve never been fat in my life. She diedwell into her 80s, and at her funeral I was
invited to the front to “view” her in heropen coffin.
I declined, explaining I would ratherremember her as she was in life, com-menting on my waistline.
Another was Sindy, a dear youngwoman who adopted the family evenbefore she was employed, and gave yearsof faithful service until she fell ill withAids. The clinic where I took her gaveher medicine, but when we phoned herat home in the Eastern Cape where shehad gone for Christmas, she said she hadresorted to African potato (part ofManto Tshabalala-Msimang’s recom-mended Aids diet). Sindy neverreturned.
Some were duds. One managed tosneak two king-size duvets out of thehouse without our noticing. Not the sort
of things you can hide under yourjumper. But most have been great,including our present Doreen, who snig-gered when I mentioned I might be hir-ing myself out in 10 years to clean some-body’s house.
“You’ll have to teach me how to iron,though,” I told her.
I’ve already looked up the minimumwages, as outlined in the DomesticWorkers’ Act, and been shocked how lowthey are.
Maybe Mr Malema, with all his influ-ence, can do something about that,preferably before a phalanx of whitenannies and houseboys like myself offerour services to the nation.
He can nationalise mines and seizeother people’s land afterwards.
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������ ��Dear Auntie,I see Paul McCartney has called hisnew album Kisses on the Bottom.What on earth?
ROCKER
BELLVILLE
Dear Rocker,
Therein hangs a tail.
AUNTIE
CAPE TIMES
F O U N D E D I N 1 8 7 6
SECOND OPINION
OTHER OPINIONS
CAPE TIMES CONTACTS
It is a wise father who knows his own child.
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We should put out fire while it is still small.
Kalenjin (Kenya) proverb
The art of writing is the art of discovering what you
believe. Gustave Flaubert
A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.
Coco Chanel
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P.S.john scott
No, MrCarlisle
NO, MR CARLISLE, the Cape Times did not getits facts wrong about the plan to build anoffice block on part of the Table Mountain
National Park.The MEC for transport can huff and puff as
much as he likes about “shoddy journalism”; he caneven use four letter words on radio to describe theCape Times article: we stand by our report.
Whatever Carlisle may say about the “Chapman’sPeak toll plaza”– that it is not “a great office rearingup the side of the mountain”, but a two-storey build-ing “designed not to be intrusive”; that the tollbooths and the office building will cost only R13 mil-lion; and that all this will be built “into the unsightlyquarry on the mountain” – the fact remains thatwith the connivance of SANParks, the province ishanding over a chunk of the Table MountainNational Park to a private company.
So what if the office block is only two-storeyshigh, if the plaza is “attractive and environmentallyappropriate” and if the quarry is “the ugliest feature on the mountain”?
So what if this deal is an attempt to undo themistakes made by a previous administration inawarding a ridiculously favourable contract toEntilini, the operators of the toll? So what if it ismore “efficient” from Entilini’s perspective to buildthe offices at the gate?
Quarries can be rehabilitated and Entilini canbuild its luxury offices elsewhere – and, whateverCarlisle may say, these are indeed luxury offices,complete with board room, lobby, meeting rooms andseveral terraces including a roof terrace.
So what if many of the picnic sites and hikingroutes fall outside the tolled section of the road?
In passing we note Carlisle’s disingenuousattempt to wriggle out of a commitment he made inMarch last year – we have the written record – toscrap the free day passes for picnickers and even tomanage the public fallout from their removal. Somuch the better if he has now seen the error of hisways and is now “not in favour of the removal of theday passes”.
There is simply no acceptable reason to cede to aprivate company a part, however small and “ugly”,of a mountain which, as the MEC so rightly says,belongs to the people of Cape Town.
Guantanamo canker
TODAY marks a sombre 10th anniversary – thatof the entry into business of the prison for ter-rorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
On January 11, 2002, the first batch of 20 captives,picked up on the battlefields of Afghanistan, arrivedat the detention centre on the US naval base on theisland of Cuba, shackled, hooded and clad in orangejumpsuits. Initially, to a country still traumatised bythe 9/11 attacks, the camp seemed a masterstroke. Itwas unequivocally American territory, yet safely dis-tant from the mainland and, therefore, the George WBush administration claimed, beyond the reach ofthe US constitution and its safeguards. A perfectplace, in other words, to lock away “illegal combat-ants” not protected by the usual rules of war.
At its peak, Guantanamo held about 500 individ-uals. In all, 775 prisoners have passed through thecentre. Conditions have undoubtedly improved fromthe early years, when detainees were abused. Legalprotection has also improved – in 2008, the SupremeCourt ruled that inmates should be accorded the pro-tection of the US constitution.
But flagrant injustices remain. Of the 171 prison-ers who are still at Guantanamo, many are innocentof any crime – some simply sold to US troops forbounty, others guilty of nothing more than being inthe wrong place at the wrong time. Yet they remainin a legal limbo that has spurred despair and hun-dreds of suicide attempts, at least four of them suc-cessful. Shaker Aamer, the last British resident stillbeing held at the prison, has been there for a decadebut has never even been charged.
President Barack Obama vowed to shut the facil-ity within a year of taking office, by January 2009.A year later, he proposed to transfer the detainees toa prison in Illinois. To no avail. In the past year, nota single inmate has been released.
The culprit for this shameful state of affairs?Congress. Republicans and Democrats have com-bined to block every White House initiative onGuantanamo. Faced with such intransigence,Obama can do nothing – and the canker rotting awaythe US’s reputation endures. – The Independent
Reportage on SANParks shenanigans shows need for free press
Down the roadENTILINI, the company that holds theconcession to manage Chapman’s PeakDrive, has been in the news before, whenthe drive was closed for a number ofyears.
At that time Robin Carlisle, thenrecently appointed to the post of MECfor public works and transport, spoke ata protest meeting at the summit andreferred to a seriously flawed contractawarded to Entilini by the previous ANCprovincial administration.
I believe it was his intention to revisethe contract and make it less lopsided infavour of the concessionaire, whosedirectors had been given a sinecure forloyal service to the ANC.
It appears from the Cape Times(January 9) and a subsequent radiointerview with Carlisle that he hasrevised his earlier opinion and is now infavour of the company building anadministration building to cost in excessof R50 million. The selected site, adisused quarry, is at road level and iscurrently a road maintenance storagesite. So large site preparation costs arenot relevant unless undergroundparking were to be part of the plan.
The site commands magnificentviews of Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay andthe Sentinel and Hangberg withKarbonkelberg in the background. So itmakes sense to include a terrace (or two),kitchen, boardroom, conference roomand toilets in the plans.
It requires little if any imagination toalter the use of part of the building aftercompletion and open access to all thetour buses that stop in the vicinity for aphoto opportunity.
With similar business sense, Entiliniwill provide the tour operators with asmall concession or kickback on theirfees if proof is provided of havingstopped at the restaurant or eatery.
At a pragmatic level, would thecontract stand up to scrutiny? Is itfundamentally fair? Were the opinions ofinterested parties ever considered?
Have the terms of the originalcontract been renegotiated?
What is wrong with Entilini’s currentoffice accommodation in Hout Bay?
LEN HANDLER
CONSTANTIA
WRITE TO US
The Editor, Cape Times, Box 11, CapeTown 8000. Fax: (021) 488 4744, or e-mail:[email protected]. Please restrict lettersto fewer than 300 words. We reserve theright to edit and only letters providing aphysical address and telephone contactnumber (neither for publication) will beconsidered. As a rule, letters which havebeen published elsewhere, either in printor electronically, will not be considered.Pseudonyms are not accepted.
Please raise minimum wage before I become a domestic
CONGRATULATIONS, MelanieGosling, for the wonderful piece ofjournalism, “Toll road company to
Build R54m luxury office block onChapman’s Peak Drive”. This is a greatexample of why we need a free andindependent press.
No doubt, the SANParks spin doctorsare frantically preparing a response towhy and how they have allowed a publicasset, however small, to get into thehands of a large corporate with no dueprocess being followed.
Recently SANParks approved thebuilding of a luxury lodge inside theKruger National Park under the guise ofcommunity development and jobcreation. In so doing, our “guardians”created a precedent for the building offuture eco-lodges. They deny this, sayingit’s a one-off event. Clearly, they areexcused from the logic of what the term
“precedent-setting” implies.Despite a huge public outcry,
construction goes ahead, all paid for bythe public. An ex-Kruger National Parkmanager was very outspoken in hisopposition to this conservation blunder,but was all but ignored by the SANParksCEO. Clearly, years of successful, hands-on conservation experience don’t count.
Following the public outcry,SANParks issued a press release onbehalf of the jobless in the area,exonerating SANParks for the clever“poverty-relief” move.
However, the impact of this PRexercise was a bit watered-down after thechairman of the SANParks board wasfound to be implicated in theappointment of the developer.
In addition, an environmental impactassessment was only scheduled afterconstruction approval had been given by
SANParks. Impressive stuff, SANParks!In the case of Chapman’s Peak,
SANParks is approving the building of amulti-million office block, in a nationalpark, for a private company, without thesupport of, or even engagement with,local residents – including thecommunities of Imizamo Yethu and theHout Bay fishing community.
Allocating a section of a publiclyowned wilderness protected area to alarge corporate only perpetuates thecurrent notion that access to prime andbeautiful areas within wilderness areasis for the wealthy.
Revoking the free access day to thepublic and charging to access braai sitesis another step in the wrong direction.Access to those braai sites and viewingareas should be free – all year round. Ifthe projected profits of a largeconstruction company fall short because
of this, then compile a business plan thatis people-based, and not profit-driven forindividual gain.
The longer-term survival of the TableMountain chain and all living thingswithin it depends largely on SANParks’sability to engender a real, heartfelt senseof joint ownership and custodianshipwithin the poorer communities of CapeTown. This is what will be required tocounter the pressures of urbanexpansion when children from theseareas are in positions of power, whichthey will be.
If the signature of the SANParksCEO is all that is required to carve outyet another section of Table Mountain,then we – who pay the salaries of eachSANParks employee – have every reasonto be extremely circumspect.
At the recent international COP 17Climate Change Conference, SANParks
officials decided to book into the HiltonSheraton Hotel. They did this so thatthey could walk across the road to theDurban ICC, to the VIP areas (readprivate functions) to lead importantdiscussions and presentations on whatpeople should be doing to save ourplanet. The irony was not lost on anyone.
The question being raised in publicdebate is: Who guards the guards?
In answering this question,precedent-making decisions like thesemust be actively challenged, questionedand, if needs be, overturned.
This must be done by the generalpublic, without intimidation, in a free,fair and transparent environment.
I sincerely hope that SANParks willget the hammering they deserve forbeing very, very stupid.
STEPHEN LAMB
CAPE TOWN
Shut up THE DIATRIBE by Robin Carlisle, “Thetruth about Chappies toll plaza” inyesterday’s Cape Times refers. Therewere aspects therein that reminded meof my grandchildren when they arebeing quizzed on who did that. “It wasn’tme, it was him” is a common refrain and“It’s not my fault, she did it” is heardfrequently.
Mr Carlisle, there are problems onChappies now and there are morecontroversial developments planned.
Your job is to sort it out, to find asolution that suits everyone. It is notabout gaining brownie points or politicaladvantage, it is about conservation,about public concern, abuse of publicmoney and natural assets. It is not aboutthe ANC or DA or even Robin Carlisle.
Stop whining, listen to the people anddo your job.
RD WINFIELD
LAKESIDE
Curious curveLIKE Barbie Sandler (“Are pupilscleverer?” January 10) I, too, am amazedat the results students are achievingthese days.
Nine distinctions! When I was atschool (Harold Cressy High), our mathsteacher drilled us endlessly on variousbranches of maths; we went to extralessons on Saturdays; we did oldexamination papers.
We went home and worked throughmore old papers in all subjects.
Did this result in six distinctions(that’s how many subjects we did then)for any of the students?
Definitely not. And there were some very bright
students at the school for years, and eventoday.
I’m not sure that even the top twostudents received distinctions for mathsand science, but they were extremelyclever and went on to become doctors.
One of the students of my year,Trevor Jones, has won Oscars for hismusical scores for movies.
So what is different today? What isthis curve I keep hearing about?
Just asking.SANDRA THOMAS
LANSDOWNE
Thumbs upAS CHAIRWOMAN of the Deaf InterestGroup in the Western Cape, I would liketo comment on your article titled“Courageous Cape trio make it to the topdespite all odds” (January 11).
I would like to point out that thisarticle does not mention the eight deafchildren at the Dominican School for theDeaf who all passed matric last year.
This also means that this school had a100 percent pass rate – an incredibleachievement.
RUTH BOURNE
PRINCIPAL
CAREL DU TOIT CENTRE
We just don’t knowTHE lively debate providing opinionsregarding the existence of God hasexposed views ranging from theisticthrough agnostic to atheistic. Those whodo not believe a God is necessary acceptthat all life began early in Earth’s historyby random interactions of componentsthat, by chance, produced a self-replicating molecule; the forerunner ofDNA if not the molecule itself. Evolutiondid the rest. This is the argument soeloquently defended by RichardDawkins.
Those of an opposite view believe thata creator is necessary to explain thewonderful complexities of nature.
What I find missing in both camps is a lack of recognition of our limitedcapacity to address the problem. We haveevery right to engage in every sort ofspeculation. Life would be that much
Couple of racistsI HAVE been following the debate onracism in Cape Town with interest. Arecent incident left a bad taste in mymouth, as a UK-born SA resident since1963, married for 27 years to an example ofCape Town’s beautiful womanhood.
My wife and I were walking our dogsin Uitsig Park in Marina da Gama when Iremonstrated with a “gentleman”illegally riding a small motorbike on thegrassed area, who said that he wasteaching his son to ride and I shouldn’tinterfere. He tried to run me over andswore at me repeatedly.
We were shoved and racially abused bythe wife of said “gentleman”. The depthof her racist comments was a shock toboth of us. Admittedly her husbandapologised from the sidelines for hiswife’s racist comments but she continuedher invective all the way to our home.
A recent article mentioned the phrase“the fog of racism”, which is anappropriate metaphor for the the blatantand unconscious racism that still exists.
My wife and I at no time engaged withher. My wife, an educated woman, hasnow realised her education and all heraccomplishments were perceived as
dangerous and even threatening to this“white” sister. This woman commented,in, the presence of her children: “Look,he cannot even get a white woman andhas a ‘coloured’ woman.”
I can cope with the man’s swearingbut most people don’t realise (becausethey are protected by the colour of theirskin) how racism is woven into the fabricof our society at all levels.
It is bad enough that my wifeencountered second-class education andhousing during apartheid, without thetwo of us encountering this treatment. I have ascertained the couple’s identityand will be laying a charge against both ofthem under the relevant legislation.
Is racism alive and well in CapeTown? You be the judge.
VICTOR BROOKE
MARINA DA GAMA
poorer if we did not. But to do so withoutconsidering just how well-equipped weare mentally to engage in matters ofsuch a fundamental nature is to reveal alack of humility unfitting of our species.
Physicists are at present battling toreconcile the mathematics that describesthe macroscopic world (Einstein’sgeneral relativity) with that whichapplies to the very small (quantumtheory). Gravity remains elusive.
Cosmologists are preparing ourminds to accept that we may live in one of many universes and that ourcomfortable framework of threedimensions plus time may be embeddedin a higher-dimensional reality.
Time itself remains a mystery. In thequantum world it appears reversible butthe second law of thermodynamics tellsus it cannot be.
New material may become availablein the future to throw light on the bigquestions we continue to ask.
PROFESSOR AO FULLER
SOMERSET WEST
