DEAR Editor,-
HCM’s Senior Manager of Communications, Simon April (‘Herald has hidden agenda’, February 12), fails to acknowledge the HCM’s major culpability for the decline of the South Coast, as exposed by Herald reporter Shona Aylward. On the contrary, and not surprisingly, Mr April insinuates that Ms Aylward’s articles are not a reflection of reality, but that she is ‘painting a picture’ and has ulterior motives for doing so. However, the veracity of Ms Aylward’s reports is corroborated by an increasingly desperate public concern about the issues covered, which is regularly given voice in local newspapers.
These are some of the matters that have not been addressed by government in the face of more than 20 years of widespread complaints, and this, not the bad publicity, is what should concern HCM. It is the duty of a free press in a democracy to expose government’s wrongdoings, incompetence, negligence, corruption and other failings. But, as usual, the self-righteous ANC denies the plethora of wrongs being exposed, tries to divert attention from them and attributes political or racial motives to the most legitimate criticisms.
This despicable habit of countering justified criticism with misinformation is of course based on the assumption that a deceit repeated often enough breeds credence. But the tactic has been so overused and the red herrings so ludicrously implausible that it has long ceased to be effective, even amongst its own supporters.
Perhaps the Gupta press represents the ANC’s idea of free expression? But Mr April asserts that the Herald’s press freedom has been ‘abused to benefit an interest of a certain grouping.’ That ‘grouping’, Mr April, consists of South Coast residents who are legitimately angry that towns, neighbourhoods, beaches, roads, verges and other public amenities continue to degenerate into repellent slums under HCM rule.
STEVEN VAN STADEN
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