Nigeria would have been worse off with Marxist ideology
Adekeye Adebajo’s uncritical hagiographic obituary of the Nigerian Marxist academic Segun Osaba serves a useful purpose, which is to make us grateful that his theories were never put into practice (“Farewell to radical scholar activist” May 25).
Nigeria is sadly not considered a great success story ― battling a history of corruption, dictatorship and venality. Bad as that is, it would have been many times worse had Osaba’s Marxist views been implemented.
What is it about academics (and we have a few of our own beauties) who in the safety of their own ivory tower universities still believe and pontificate that communism/Marxism is the best form of governance?
A group of noble “comrades” take over a country by revolution and then govern selflessly in the interests of the poor. And what about a democratic vote to let the people decide? Noooo, we don’t need that anymore. Really!
Wherever it has been implemented communism has proven a disaster, rejected by the very common people it is supposed to be serving. You need to be some sort of fool to carry on believing, in the face of history, that it will be different next time.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant got it right: “Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.” Which is why no dictatorship, even in the name of “the proletariat”, has ever worked, nor will ever work.
Imperfect though it is, liberal democracy is the only effective form of governance. Marxist academics need to absorb this blindingly obvious lesson.
Jonathan Schrire
Kenilworth
Social grants, minimum wage spark youth unemployment debate
Michael Morris’s most recent column refers (“National minimum wage rules need revision”, May 25).
The other side of this coin is, of course, social grants. These also increase, and then entrench, unemployment, especially among the youth.
In rural Eastern Cape, where any kind of job is rare enough, young people increasingly avoid jobs entirely. I’ve had first-hand experience of jobs being turned down as they’d threaten grant income. Turns out not earning at all, though subsisting on a lesser grant, is preferable to working even if working would bring in more.
People prefer living on less with the option of occasional/seasonal work. This work and income are, of course, never reported for fear of losing grant access.
Which brings us to the third side of this rather odd-shaped coin ― all of the people on social grants who are also working and have independent incomes... anyone got the stats on that?
Stuart Meyer
Via Business Day online
State pensioners bear brunt of PIC’s investment losses
I had the displeasure of sitting in the Treasury budget vote debate on Friday, where DA federal finance chair Mark Burke painfully outlined the absolutely disastrous history of the Public Investment Corporation’s “investments” in unlisted entities over the past few years (“Masondo and Burke clash over PIC’s unlisted investments”, May 24).
Burke picked out a few of the 78 “investments” that have lost money, pointing out that one in five of these lost all of the money. We don’t know if it was stashed under a couch or was stolen, but in the 12 minutes Burke was allocated, he took us through a shopping list of literally billions of rand lost or stolen.
Interestingly, much of this money was lost after the state capture era. The sad thing is that the majority of people who are affected by this are state pensioners who spent their whole lives working, the majority of whom are poor and black.
Burke specifically named five “investments” that lost more than R1bn each. For instance, Smile Communications had R1.2bn invested in it and is now worth nothing.
Despite this disgusting history the ANC speakers all pushed for further funds to be thrown into this Bermuda Triangle. The ever-suffering workers of South Africa need to know that their hard-earned pensions are being raided by some of their political masters.
Michael Bagraim, MP
DA employment & labour spokesperson
Durban faces services crises as officials downplay collapse
eThekwini city manager Musa Mbhele is delusional when he claims Durban is not collapsing and merely undergoing “transformation”.
Meanwhile, Durban suburbs are without water for weeks and without power for days on end. More than half of our piped water leaks away into the ground and into blocked drains that cause flooding and mayhem. All without any apology or explanation.
Polluted seas, unkempt parks and public spaces where by-laws are flouted, a grimy, broken CBD and inner suburbs where vagrants, homeless and “wonga” gangs live on filthy pavements without access to toilets or water.
No streetlight globes in stock, no water meters in stock. No meter reading, no accurate consolidated billing, no outstanding debt identification or revenue collecting. No idea, no plan, no care.
Durban is a city where municipal staff and councillors owe millions and government departments billions more. Where the only reaction is to increase the rates and utility charges rather than employ honest and qualified executives and leaders who can turn the ship around.
It is a municipality where uShaka Marine World, the International Convention Centre and Moses Mabhida Stadium chew through multimillions in subsidies when they should really be contributing millions to the city’s coffers.
Pull the other one, Mr Mbhele. We don’t believe you. Elections are coming and we’re coming for you.
Mark Lowe
Durban
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businessday.co.za. Letters of more than 200 words may be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.