New DA style will serve it better

AS the saying goes, it takes two to tango, so the DA alone cannot be held responsible for the acrimony which has marked council meetings in recent months. There is no doubt, though, that its often immature and at times confrontational style has not helped.

Without referring specifically to the metro, DA provincial leader Athol Trollip has called for a new approach.

Some of the examples of DA negativity he cited were right on the mark, with the strategy being to shoot down the incumbent party, rather than promoting its claim to support on its own merits and through constructive debate.

It is something we have remarked on repeatedly. And unfortunately the DA has raised valid issues, only to waste the impact it might have had because of what we might call a poor presentation technique, coloured by frustration or impatience and on occasion, resorting to insult.

If it is to gain support it will need to be more persuasive and be magnanimous and mature enough to see both sides of the issue.

The fact that the party’s own provincial leader has raised it as a concern is proof enough that this is not something the media has imagined.

On the other side of the coin, the ANC needs to modify its overbearing and dismissive ways. It has also not been beyond hysteria and latching onto petty points-scoring.

An improvement in the way council functions might begin with the parties affording each other mutual respect – a basis for interaction which has been sorely lacking.

That does not mean that the DA should cease to be vigilant, or cease to challenge. Because of the ANC’s overwhelming power, the need for a rapier-sharp opposition remains vitally important.

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Lean times for ex-principals

TEACHERS don’t have it easy in this province as the difficulties of recent years have shown. But the one thing they are surely entitled to after busy and useful careers is proper provision for their retirement. That, it seems, does not always happen.

Take, for instance, the position of Mildred Adkins who retired from Tsolo Primary School (of which she was principal) in 1989. She says she contributed to the pension fund for 43 years and yet her pay-out came to a meagre R15 000. Her state pension of just over R600 a month is vital to her existence.

Yet why should somebody who headed a school, to say nothing of giving all those years of service, have to struggle as she obviously does?

Another former principal whose case we cited yesterday is Aubrey Pepper, former head of Mary Waters Senior Secondary School in Grahamstown, who in 1993 received a pension pay-out of R98 000 after 28 years in teaching.

Surely the province can take better care of folk who were clearly leaders in their communities but were left with no hope of supporting themselves in the dignity that belongs to former school principals?

Both these people – and the public – are entitled to an explanation as to why they have been so meanly treated. And who, after reading their stories, would want to aspire to a career in teaching?