Get a grip on our history

Mr. T. Naidoo’s letter of April 17 and his questions “Why are you so quiet” “What are you scared of?” refer to the misinformed and misdirected youth of this country, who must get a grip of SA history. Then they will realize all the benefits that have occurred and are still occurring from colonialism.

Instead of tilting at windmills they should be questioning Government’s rapaciousness, plunder and gross inefficiency, for is this not tantamount to oppression?

For us, the colonists packed their few worldly possessions and travelled across the oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in a harsh climate, endured the bush and ploughed the hard earth.

For us, they built roads, bridges, railways, hospitals, schools, universities, churches, synagogues, temples and mosques. For us, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that all might live a better life.

For us, in the two great wars, they fell in many a foreign clime, so we could be secure from evil and tyranny.

They saw this tip of Africa as bigger than the sum of their individual ambitions, greater than all the differences of birth, or wealth or faction. Lest we forget them, statues were built to these great men and women.

Vandalizing and destroying these statues through hatred and jealousy is not going to advance mankind. Study, hard work and dedication are the only way. The Taliban learnt a lesson when they destroyed that 2500 old statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan.

The conservatives, of whatever hue, need to come out and say enough is enough.

MR. K. PADAYACHEE

Tongaat