EDITOR
The latest row over the city conferring a Living Legends award on Hlaudi Motsoeneng is another indication of how our city is run by a dysfunctional group of people with no concern for the citizens of eThekwini. They treat this city like their own personal fiefdom that flies in the face of the real meaning of democracy.
The city manager, S’bu Sithole, who is the most senior civil servant in our municipality, is quite rightly asking how SABC head, Hlaudi Motsoeneng was honoured by the city without his knowledge or the approval of the City Council. That he should be honoured as a Living Legend by our city is a disgrace and an insult to every citizen who believes in our constitutional democracy
The decision was obviously made by a department head, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, with or without the knowledge of his immediate boss, Deputy City Manager, Dr Musa Gumede. Were any politicians aware of this decision?
Let us enlighten the city manager. The reason is simple in that there are two factions in the ANC and we have the ridiculous situation, that although the city manager is meant to be the boss, there are others ranked below him that wield more political power, and Thembinkosi Ngcobo is one of them. Rumours are rife that the city manager’s days are numbered and one of the names being thrown around as a successor is none other than the same Thembinkosi Ngcobo.
The eThekwini Living Legends Awards was a good idea. But like any award handed out to people, its success depends on the acceptance that the people being honoured are genuine Living Legends in the eyes of the public. If not, it will diminish the integrity of the award and also devalue other deserving recipients.
If, in 1994, the Academy Awards committee had decided that the irreverent comedy, Dumb and Dumber deserved the Oscar for best film over the eventual winner Forrest Gump and other nominees like The Shawshank Redemption, Quiz Show, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Pulp Fiction, then we would find this glittering awards ceremony becoming a non-event. Oscar winners would be dumping their gold statuettes into the trashcan.
Forget about who and how it was decided to give an eThekwini Living Legend award to SABC head, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, but it dumbs down the integrity of the award. How sad for those that deserve it.
Why do we as South African continue to accept second best? The notion that the SABC policy to introduce a 90% local content quota to their playlists will be good for South African music is highly questionable. The listening public will vote with their feet. No reasonable study was done to see whether this was a good decision that would work. For heavens sake, we are part of the rest of the world. We are loyal, devoted South Africans and we want to see all South Africans do well, but real success has to be obtained in world markets.
Abdullah Ebrahim, Miriam Makeba, Lucky Dube, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Johnny Clegg, Just Jinger, Hugh Masekela and numerous others didn’t need to have their music forced on the public to be acknowledged as world class.
What has happened to the once proud ANC, a liberation movement and political party that owed so much of its success to the defense of the workers of South Africa and to their rights? Now our city, which is controlled by that same political party honours a man who has autocratically treated members of staff at the SABC with utter contempt and has had his illegal dismissal of staff members over-turned by the labour courts. So bad were his decisions, that the judge put him and his fellow henchmen on notice, to show why the court should not make them pay the court costs in their personal capacity.
And our city, your city, deems it fit to call this man a Living Legend and treats him like some hero. As far as we know, a man like Jay Naidoo, who was born in Durban and was the first Secretary general of COSATU has never received such an award but then he has been critical of the ANC of late. We wonder what he thinks of this latest award to a man who believes he is above the labour laws of the country?
To sum up, we believe that this is another disgraceful decision by people who have lost their way and use our money to satisfy their own personal agenda.
Kevin Dunkley
Cheryl Johnson
SAVE OUR BEREA
