Dear Sir

Ijust want to elaborate onmy earlier comment about media ethics and codes unscientififically and informally

A reporter must be like{in fact they are}a cop in the furtherance of their duties{fearless} and this is what is lacking inour journalists.

Those interviewing techniques which they should have beenequipped with during their training must come-out strongly so that they are not accused of favouritism or masquerading as the spokesman of their subjects.

Chris Barron is showing the way to what interviewing techniques are by getting answers evenfrom those who think they`re untouchable.

Just as a cop is required to be patriotic a reporter is required to be a reporter first and foremost and then something else later.

What aneditor told me couple of yearsago that yes we`re givingour readers piecemeal news because if we are gonna be investigative you won`t afford the paper since we will bring-inbinvestigative season reporters and we will have to pay themmarket related salariesand that will meanour readers won`t be paying R2.50 anymore for their daily but R10-R15and this was wrong since they should have researhed reader demograhies.

According to media tycoon Conrad Black reporters are ignorant,lazy,opinionated,intellectually dishonest and inadequately supervised.

On the morning of the 12th we woke-up to a picvture of Chikane{Presidency Director-General pasted on the center page of a local paper and I was enthralled believing that he has good news from the President about a strategy to combat crime but he was only coming to whine and whinge and then disappear with no assurances and guarantees that for an example a unit like that dispatched to the Carribean will be introduced.

His opening line was:The recent renewed spate of superficial and negative comments on crime have done little to enhance a necessary debate-nor to pursue an effective remedial strategy-over this most serious matter.

Now,there you are! this inept,incompetent and ideas bankrupt regime is allowing crime to escalate to create a topic for debate.

HE WENT-ON TO UTTER THAT;THE NUB OF THE SITUATION IS THAT NO-ONE,but no-one,in the government makes light of crime and if so why act prudently and diligently when it comes to the Carribean and lackadaisical when it comes to us and turn crime into a point of empty debate.

We,in government,most urgently seek to root-out this evil in our society and we seek the co-operation of all sectors and interests to do this and I was taken aback to hear this because the reason that the Firstrand CEO embarked on alternative measures to communicate the crime situation with the President is because the President and his Minister and Ntional Commissioner were not responding to hissuggestions and proposal which contradicts Chikane when earlier he said :From the vantage of the office of the office of the DG of the Presidency,Secretary of the Cabinet and Chairperson of the Forum of the DG`s,I find governance at all levels seized of the subject and seeking vigorously to curb the evil and to me that was just a bible since there are no foundations to prove that they are serious and that it is an ANC discussion document.

It is not even earmarked for the ANC`s forthcoming National Conference and so there`s no element of truth in his rhetoric but just a cop-out,face-saving,politicking and bickering exercise in futility.

His closing paragraph was:we should roll-up our sleeves,put our shoulders to the wheel and attack crime collectively and individually wherever it manifests itself-within our homes or families,in our streets or workplaces.

I`m so conceived by this gobbledegook and damp squib of a rhetoric that I`m left with one belief which is that this will be allowed to escalate since in the eyes of Chikane and his ilks its a non-entity but a mere debate and that if they can nip crime in the bud there`ll be nothing to debate.

Dear Sir

WouldI have been a taxpayer I would have vigorously opposed incentives or salaries for cpf`s on the ground that this was going to result into escalating crime instigated by the cpf`s since this was gonna be their permanent form of income and eliminating crime this would entail going back to the jobmarket.

This equally apply to the security guaed industry who depend on crime to remain in business and will never eradicate crime.What one might have noticed its the fact they would do a good job during the duration of their contract and on the eve of the expiry of this contract there will be crime in the area they are guarding and they will have suspects in chains in the morning and this will lead to those affected to conclude that time is not right to terminate this contract and so extend the contract and this will go-on until you are financially exhausted or you relocate.What you will not realise its that the suspects are vagrants who have been trampled the whole night forced to confess to a crime committed by guards to get you to extend the contract.

What is needed its that thepolice stations must be given autonomy and executives must stick to their tasks of bringing about laws that will make the police to be sufficient.

Police must perform in accordance with their ethics and codes of conduct i.e.I have never heard cops in South Africa reading suspects their rights on arrest nor respecting the right of a suspect to have their lawyers present when making statements.

In terms of current crime patterns we do need specialised cops on the beat to defend women against being abducted and prostituted and murdered,counter-act organised criminals by monitoring and surveiling them and pouncing at them on their act.

In the past we had what was known as the "Ghost Squad"because of its invisibility since they dressed like thugs and it was very successful since its task was to prevent crime from happening by arrestinmg suspects before they commit their crimes and that is what I mean by "specialised unit"and I`m urging the ANC to adopt this comment as their discussion document and to thrash it out to citizens for their views and once-and-for-all come-up with a sustainable crime-fighting plan or face class suit for failing to defend people like Lindeque and the hordes who are languishing in Palestine and South American jails.

Yours Sincerely
(^#
Tim Singiswa

Bollocks!After accusing the opposition of frightening investors with their constant whinging about crime the ANC claimed the cause of crime is poverty and so nstead of whinging about crime people should fight poverty and that`s bollocks since a child who bunks school to go shoplift to have some pocket money is nt impoverished.

The executives of the ANC WHO STEAL TAXPAYERS money to enrich themselves and the Nigerians who abduct young girls from these cbd private schools and prostitute them to get the capital to start businesses are not impoverished and so that resarch of the ANC concluding that crime is borne by poverty is cockeyed.

Again I call on the ANC TO RE-train the police in democratic principles{when someone ask for overnight shelter at police stations they must shelter him or refer him to a night shelter and that`s democratic policng principles},make them policemen and not just employees by doing away with illiteracy,inexperiency and violence and the crime that is at the back of their heads.

Cachalia has not yet implemented security measures at where he was mugged except for his immediate family and himself and this is sickening that while they are barricading themselves with ninety million rands fences they can come and tell us to protect ourselves.

Now,the residents in that area are considering hiring security guards and this is not acceptable since they should campaign for police presency even using courts.

The community of Hartebeest have been victims of ambushes and theb police did nothing until they decided to show our dozing cops how to do it and they managed to aprehend the perpetrators in one day.

Cachalia boasted about a high-tech instrument that was going to eliminate all the problems we encounter at 10111 and we discover that it was a mere voicemail which never tackled a single of those problems and added more traumas due to the waiting.

i take offense to your statement of journalists being biased...
as a journalist, it is our job to be watchdogs for the public; we tell them what is in their best interests.
we do not, however, report on what WE think about situations. that would be prejudiced...everything we do is for the interests of the public.
with the media not being 100% free in s.a. we are limited as to what we can and cannot report on. if there is an issue with that, take it up with the government, not with the people responsible for trying to inform and educate ignorant media consumers like you!