LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thando Maeko’s article refers (“ ANC wants one-party control but even own voters back DA coalition ”, August 13).

A small observation. Despite some vague comments made about “wanting” the coalitions bill passed before the November election, this is just not possible.

There must be extensive public consultation (likely more than one public hearing per province), as it affects every municipality directly. In addition, the bill was described in the portfolio committee meeting as a section 76 bill, which requires the National Council of Provinces to consult with provincial legislatures. This adds weeks to the process after the National Assembly has passed the bill.

Finally, the president has almost never signed a bill in less than two months after being finalised by parliament. If it is signed immediately there is a risk of a challenge on the grounds of his not applying his mind.

While the bill is described as “stabilising” coalitions, several of the measures proposed over the past three years have not been included in this bill.

In Ziyanda Thando Nzimande’s otherwise valuable article on the new split in the ANC, Jacob Zuma’s MK party is described as “left” (“ ANC is consumed by war with itself ”, August 13). This is fundamentally wrong.

There is nowhere on the planet where a party whose unelected and kleptocratic leader has spoken of assaulting gay people, sending teenage mothers to a former prison, restoring corporal punishment or elevating aristocratic power over democratic power could be thought of as left.

There is also nowhere on the planet where a party whose members use crude ethnic rhetoric and attack migrants on the streets could be termed left.

It is true, of course, that MK is not a typically right-wing party in the way the FF+, ActionSA or the PA are. However, policy positions such as the expropriation of land without compensation do not automatically make a party left. After all, the 1920 programme of the Nazi Party demanded the nationalisation of businesses and expropriation of land.

MK is a corrupt, socially conservative, ethnically inflected and violently xenophobic authoritarian radical nationalist party. It could be argued that this makes it fall outside the standard ideas of left and right. It could also be argued that it is a very far-right project. It cannot, though, be credibly argued that it is on the left.

The article, “ A (long) tale of two Chinas ” (August 11), does not convey the truth, nor does it show the readers the right picture. We would like to clarify the following points:

First, there is no such thing as “two Chinas”. The UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 adopted in 1971 reaffirmed the one-China principle: There is but one China in the world; the Taiwan region is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China.