Readers' views via SMS

TEACHERS older than 60 should be barred from applying for promotion posts. It is a waste of taxpayers' money. They are clogging the system, keeping younger teachers out of a job – that's plain selfishness, greed and common!

THANK you, Mr May, for speaking up about the high rental increases at retirement villages. Does the minister of finance think he is doing the pensioners a favour by giving us a R60 increase? We also have to eat and clothe ourselves. The rent alone increased by R357 as from April 1. Gross injustice.

SUPPORT the home team: Gordon Upton, well said. Let's support the Kings and forget the Watsons for a change.

G MAC, an excellent idea would be to make them each a polony sandwich and pray "there but for the grace of God go I".

MY utmost sympathy for G Mac. At 5am weekly on a Thursday I get reminded, it's rubbish bin day. A neighbour insists on placing her black bags out the night before. All hell breaks loose, dogs and different families going for the spoils. Instead, put bags out five minutes before you depart for work. I pass the truck at 7am down the road.

REGARDING the cross at Van Stadens, what use would it be at the bottom? Most jumpers die. It's a great idea. A reader says it will be an eyesore – shame, how can a cross be seen as such?

THE reason for the street lights pointing upwards is because the light is the incorrect size for the pole and moves in high wind. Fact!

HOW can the mother of baby Wade say she did not see the marks on his tiny little body? She had to bathe him or change a nappy. Her time will come!

A FATHER is shot in front of his young son: it appears in brief on page 6. It seems like another day, another murder. Let's just bypass it. Have we really become so used to violence that it just passes over our heads? Eish.

LET's hope it's not just talk and action will take place to clean up this area. The number of taxis needs to be reduced and illegal traders to pack up and leave. There's no way you can make Durban Road a one way, you will cause enormous traffic congestion in Highfield Road. Everything needs to be regulated.

WELL done, councillor Isaac Adams. Now you move down to the traffic department. Come clean up and we will help you: car guards who allegedly rob people, illegal caravans, and guys in front rude and uncultured.

ALL these service delivery protests in NMB Municipality really need to be properly investigated. I am convinced there are individuals who are instigators.

IF Mr Bergsman were younger and he died of his injuries, would the perpetrators have been found guilty of murder? The fact that he was old and died as a result of his injuries does not make the perpetrators innocent. Sounds like discrimination against his age.

ONE of the greatest weaknesses that South Africans have adopted is their sense of entitlement to everything and believing that opportunity will fall into their laps! As a young graduate myself, I am appalled at the level of narrow-mindedness that was written about in a Herald article about the graduates without jobs despite shortages. And both graduates mentioned they were passionate about teaching, but not a single one of them decided to volunteer themselves to underprivileged schools. No, they would rather watch TV and go to gym. How about using that time to empower the community through what Lushaka sponsored?

CAN someone at the municipality please have a look at a section of the lights in Spando Road that have been burning day and night for months now. Surely there are a lot of lazy workers driving on this road every day. Wake up.

IF one wants to know how to save electricity, look at NMMM. Dangerous areas and bends on the freeways are pitch black, with invisible road markings. Where the road is straight, lamps are glowing. Is it difficult for the metro just to do one simple thing and take the safety of Port Elizabeth residents as its priority?

LET the three ex-presidents of this country do something positive about rape in this country. Silence is not a solution.

ALL the evil and brutality happening in our country started small and as it wasn't dealt with, it grew and it now has reached its peak in all sectors of society.

IS it acceptable for children to march with their parents? It is teaching them it is OK to stay away instead of going to class and letting their parents do it. But hang on, don't these parents have jobs and staying away is affecting their employers? The education system is the greatest downfall to our current and future economic situation, over and above the bribery and corruption.

AFTER dark cattle are roaming free and crossing the road outside our airport roundabouts! What an introduction to our city to international travellers! Welcome to darkest Africa and the third world!