Latest news with #SouthAfricanFriendsofIsrael
IOL News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Ramaphosa just doesn't cut it and Mayor Xaba is keeping our land from us
Alexander the Great shows just why Ukrainian heavyweight world boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk who retained his heavyweight title after beating UK challenger Daniel Dubois over the weekend is an example as to why the Ukrainian armed forces have given the Russian invaders a bloody nose and having held the front line for 3 years. Ukrainian fighters are as tough as teak and this streak comes through in Usyk who fights in the ring for every man and woman living in the trenches in Eastern Ukraine. When Russia invaded Ukraine 3 years ago Usyk left the boxing ring in Europe after a call from a relative, got on a plane, flew to Poland and drove across the border to Kyiv …. He was in the trenches inside a week ! This is what Ukrainians are made of and the reason they will never ever give up. The people of Ukraine have much to be proud of. Slava Ukraini! | Colin Bosman Newlands National dialogue an insult or distraction? On behalf of SAFI (the South African Friends of Israel) I must share how deeply dismayed we are by the shocking absence of evangelical representation on the panel of 'eminent persons' selected for President Ramaphosa's R700-million National Dialogue. While the president insists the dialogue is meant to be citizen-led and non-partisan, the deliberate exclusion of evangelical voices, such as those of Pastor Bert Pretorius, who represents over 19 900 churches and half of South Africa's Christian population, raises serious concerns about the inclusivity and legitimacy of the initiative. This glaring omission undermines the credibility of a process billed as a path toward national unity. Faith-based organisations have always been central to South Africa's moral and political awakening, from resisting Apartheid to fostering reconciliation. Ignoring their contribution today suggests this dialogue is less about unity and more about political optics – perhaps even a thinly veiled prelude to the ANC's local election campaign. South Africans have already spoken through the ballot box in 2024, giving rise to a Government of National Unity. What citizens demand now is implementation, not more rhetoric. With unemployment at 32.9%, basic services failing, and daily life growing more difficult, a taxpayer-funded talkshop feels like a distraction at best and an insult at worst. It's time to govern, not consult. | Daniel Jacobi Executive Director, South African Friends of Israel Ramaphosa fails to inspire confidence Cyril Ramaphosa hit the eject button long ago. The last time he inspired trust was in 2018, when he took a stroll on the Cape Town promenade, pretending to be a man of the people. Since then, he's revealed himself as possibly one of the most radical leaders in recent memory. A real captain stays with a sinking ship, but not Ramaphosa. He's doubled down on some of the most destructive, racist policies South Africa has seen. When crisis strikes, he doesn't calm the flames – he throws petrol on them. His silence on Malema's Kill the Boer chant, indifference toward farm murders, and fixation with Foreign Affairs in the GNU should've set off loud alarm bells. Add to that his ties with Police Minister Mchunu – exposed by the fearless General Mkwanazi – and the picture darkens. Economically, we are bleeding. Politically, we're in disarray. Drug trafficking, political assassinations, vanishing dockets, no arrests of senior politicians, and radical BEE laws – this country is in worse shape than under Zuma! Ramaphosa hasn't just inherited the baton of State Capture – he's running full tilt with it. We are leaderless, rudderless. The ship has hit the iceberg and Ramaphosa, with his well-connected cadres, has already fled in lifeboats, leaving the rest of us to drown. No matter h ow often the ANC is exposed – by Trump, the World Bank, Solidarity, Afriforum or Mkwanazi –Ramaphosa remains unfazed. Not even Marikana, Phala Phala or his White House embarrassment rattled him. He just giggles, throws in a joke, or speaks in that slow, hypnotic drone. But the public has had enough. No more commissions. No more empty promises. No more 'family meetings' or excuses for incompetence. We must now rally behind honest voices like General Mkwanazi. Ramaphosa's weaponisation of apartheid is nothing more than an exhausted ploy to maintain power. His repeated refrain – 'we are on a journey, and much still needs to be done' – has worn thin. The damage is done. It's time the people pushed back. | L Oosthuizen Durban They seized the day and now lead the way Raymond Ackerman's Pick n Pay was once a leading retailer. Now it's a poor second to Checkers. During Covid, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths were in slumberland. Checkers saw the opportunity a lockdown presented and raced ahead with its online shopping. It was a hit with customers as many found it a convenient way of shopping. Nine out of 10 times, you see Checkers 60/60 motor cycles on the roads delivering groceries and food. You rarely see Pick n Pay, Spar or Woolworths delivery bikes. Checkers even brought celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to South Africa to promote its 60/60 delivery service. Then belatedly Pick n Pay got a rap artist who didn't make much of an impression. Pick n Pay cannot even get its advertising right. It's advertising pages are crowded with importantly, is the location of some of its shops. I know of three Pick n Pay shops which are sited in the wrong place. In Chatsworth the Pick n Pay shop is not in the busy mall but away from it, as cross the road. The dame with Malvern Pick n Pay which is now isolated from the new stylish Malvern Park Shopping Centre. Customers are drawn to the new mall where Checkers is the anchor Kloof the Field's Hill Pick n Pay has suffered the same fate. Customers find Village Mall with its clothing shops, Spar, Post Office, banks, Clicks and several fast food outlets more convenient .Checkers is way ahead of the pack and left its stragglers far behind. | Thyagaraj Markandan Kloof You, Mr Mayor, are keeping land from us Dear ANC Mayor Cyril Xaba In your Metro Newspaper of June 27-July 10, 2025, you said: 'The Proactive Land Release Strategy, approved by Council in 2021, was to give effect to Section (5) of our Constitution, obligating the Council to take reasonable legislative and other means, to foster conditions to enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis.' Really Mayor Xaba? Twenty-seven years for the ANC-led eThekwini Municipality to wake up to the Constitution? Going against AA and EE, the ANC retained Wim van Heerden as Director of Real Estate Department for three years, then placed another White, Keith Matthias, to run and ruin the Council's Real Estate Department for over 25 years. Was the ANC expecting these White Apartheid architects of the former NP-run Durban City Council, to undo Apartheid and return our lands? Really! This strategy was to punish Indians who didn't vote ANC and prevent us from getting claimed land back! What destruction and division did your ANC cause in 31 years with and without the help of the EFF and Minority Front, Patrick Pillay, Roy Moodley (MOSA) , Visvin Reddy etc, in coalition? Yet the Constitution instructs you to rectify historic imbalance of land ownership and distribution, but you do the opposite of restitution. The goal was to create an environment for everyone to have equal access to land for housing, agriculture, business etc. You have failed Indians badly. Racism – anti-Indian, anti–restitution of claimed lands; is this what the ANC stands for? Our claimed lands were overun by your illegal, land-invading, bussed voters. Your ANC sold our Indian claimed lands illegally to Moreland Properties, and Rivers Church, among others. Are you waiting for us to die or get fed up and walk away? When the ANC in eEthekwini Municipality employs/imports a youth from Gauteng, Thaphelo Mmsunyane, as Director of Real Estate and ignores the others in Durban with degrees and much more experience, skin and cadre over merit, then we are sinking. He has no experience of Apartheid, so refuses to meet with us and undo it, much like his predecessors, Van Heerden and Mathias. What a shame that your ANC co-run eThekwini Municipality has taken the place of the New National Party and supporters of your own Group Areas Action & Apartheid by keeping Indians in Chatsworth, Phoenix, Verulam and out of Durban North, Glen Anil, Riverside, Greyville, Cato Manor, the Bluff, Newlands etc where they were removed from. | Robin Naidoo Chairman ILCA (Indian Land Claimants Association), Phoenix DAILY NEWS
IOL News
a day ago
- Politics
- IOL News
R700 million ‘National Dialogue' ignores evangelical voices
While the President insists the dialogue is meant to be citizen-led and non-partisan, the deliberate exclusion of evangelical voices, such as those of Pastor Bert Pretorius, who represents over 19,900 churches and half of South Africa's Christian population, raises serious concerns about the inclusivity and legitimacy of the initiative, says the writer. On behalf of SAFI (the South African Friends of Israel), I must share how deeply dismayed we are by the shocking absence of evangelical representation on the panel of 'eminent persons' selected for President Ramaphosa's R700 million National Dialogue. While the President insists the dialogue is meant to be citizen-led and non-partisan, the deliberate exclusion of evangelical voices, such as those of Pastor Bert Pretorius, who represents over 19,900 churches and half of South Africa's Christian population, raises serious concerns about the inclusivity and legitimacy of the initiative. This glaring omission undermines the credibility of a process billed as a path toward national unity. Faith-based organisations have always been central to South Africa's moral and political awakening, from resisting Apartheid to fostering reconciliation. Ignoring their contribution today suggests this dialogue is less about unity and more about political optics - perhaps even a thinly veiled prelude to the ANC's local election campaign. South Africans have already spoken through the ballot box in 2024, giving rise to a Government of National Unity. What citizens demand now is implementation, not more rhetoric. With unemployment at 32.9%, basic services failing, and daily life growing more difficult, a taxpayer-funded talkshop feels like a distraction at best and an insult at worst. It's time to govern, not consult. Daniel Jacobi Executive Director, South African Friends of Israel
IOL News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Humanitarian crisis: SAFI to host PA delegation in Israel while over two million people starve in Gaza
The South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) is set to host a delegation of Patriotic Alliance (PA) party members on an upcoming study tour to Israel. This comes as two million Palestinians face starvation and suffer attacks at the hands of the state's military force. "This imminent trip follows a request from the PA for SAFI to organise the tour so that its political leaders can learn from Israel for the good of a future South Africa," said SAFI's national spokesperson, Bafana Modise, in a statement released on Monday. Modise added that South Africans and political leaders can "Israel's experience in social and economic development, particularly in delivering services that improve quality of life for all." "The trip is further supported by the fact that the ANC's foreign policy decisions do not represent the will or the interests of the South African people," Modise added. Modise added that Israel can also gain valuable lessons from South Africa's experiences in nation-building, particularly in nurturing unity and common purpose among diverse communities with differing interests and concerns.
