LETTER: Matshiqi fans fires of division

The opinion piece by Aubrey Matshiqi titled: “Weak opposition puts 50% ANC support back on the table” (May 20) refers.

One thing was patently clear from the beginning. This wasn’t a bona fide opinion piece but a direct attack piece only on the DA under the guise of asking questions. When words like “racist”, “colonial mindset”, “hysterical” and “anti-black” all appear in the same column, all in discussing the DA, it is hard to see a piece such as this as credible.

What Matshiqi could be doing, instead of fanning the fires of divide, is perhaps educating traditional ANC voters looking to leave as to not only the promises made by opposition parties such as the DA, but what they have achieved in government as well. In other words, these promises are not pipe dreams, but fact. But why would he do that when it doesn’t fit his narrative?

The Western Cape outdoes every other province in almost every single metric. The best examples are simply the size of the infrastructure budgets allocated to the poor, or SA’s lowest unemployment rate by a substantial margin. But of course this would not fit the narrative.

To readers of that column, I ask, take words like that with a pinch of salt akin to someone with a sodium allergy. Calling parties racist and trying to divide South Africans should be left for Twitter (X) and its bots. Most of us just want to ensure we have a job, are safe in our homes, and have electricity and proper education for our children.

It's time we stop this DA bashing under this nonsense guise that they are protecting the white elite. Cape Town, Midvaal, Kouga, and Umgeni are all examples of how ridiculous it is.

People like Matshiqi, let’s do better please — our country is literally burning to the ground.

Dorraine Stevens 
Centurion

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.