LETTER: Until we limit our numbers we can never catch up

I read with interest Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’s take on the D-grade pass given to SA’s investment in infrastructure by the SA Institution of Civil Engineering (“Cape Town bucks trend”, November 23).

He quite rightly says it paints a dire picture of chronic underinvestment, but that Cape Town is involved in many projects to help grow the economy. Good for him. But here is the problem — one I see time and again when politicians talk — they rarely mention the elephant in the room.

Until we limit our numbers we can never catch up. There are never going to be enough schools, houses and hospitals. Never enough water for everyone, proper sewage works, proper roads or adequate trains. We all know about the electricity issue.

So why do the powers that be not pour a bit more money into family planning, sex education in all of our schools, more clinics with free contraception and abortions? Let’s have nurses who are understanding and won’t send teenagers away because the nurses concerned don’t believe they should have contraception. That is why we see children as young as 13 having babies. SA has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world. Who is left literally holding the baby? The poor gogos.

Every year we have the same scenario of hundreds of kids not being placed in schools and universities. Well, you can’t pass a camel through the eye of a needle. There are just too many kids applying for too few posts.

Then we have the problem of thousands leaving university with no prospect of getting jobs. It is all soul destroying. Can government not bring in a policy that only those with no more than two children get tax relief? Maybe this is the way to get through to people: through their pockets.

Barbie Sandler
Constantia

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