It's a real pity we South Africans don't fight back, but rather sit back and accept all the atrocities enforced on us by President Jacob Zuma and his ANC. - Glen Manickum, by e-mail

PITYANA sums up perfectly the situation in South Africa under this corrupt and inept government. Today' s ANC bears scant resemblance to that of Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and Neil Aggett.

Is this what Nelson Mandela served 27 years in jail for, and Biko and Aggett gave their lives for? Sad days indeed. - Barbara, Edenvale

PITYANA slated the ANC for the "collapsing education system, collapsing healthcare system, inefficient civil service, pervasive crime and corruption".

He said South Africans should stop endorsing a leadership that fails to deliver. I could not agree more.

New leadership and new ideas for South Africa will never come from within the ANC because the party is too fractured to produce anything markedly different from what we have .

So, what Pityana is really saying is that the time has come to dump the ANC and support a different party.

The DA has shown it can deliver where it is in power.

The Western Cape has the highest matric pass rate, the best healthcare system and the lowest unemployment rate.

We can bring this approach to the rest of the country. - Mmusi Maimane, DA spokesman

PITYANA is 100% correct in saying the government is incompetent.

It does not have the background and education to run a country.

Members are elected for the wrong reasons, to do jobs for which they do not have the know-how.

The government should be run by the most successful business people in the country. - I de Villiers

YES, we deserve some of those leaders, who are luckily furnished not only with natural intelligence and superior education but the right relatives or mates, too, to lift them to the position to do some good for the country.

It is refreshing to find from time to time - despite affirmative action - good people in the right position to do a brilliant job.

By talking to the few to be found, one will learn about the stressful climate for them caused by the dilettantes. - Eberhard Samson, Primrose

PITYANA'S article has unleashed furious debate about the leaders "we" have chosen.

It is a futile debate and will remain so until South Africans accept that the electoral system must be changed from proportional representation to a constituency-based system.

Only the latter system offers voters a choice of candidates for positions and the chance to hold them accountable.

Today, not even the vast majority of ANC voters get to choose their leaders.

Nor do the 3000 delegates at the elective conference, with predetermined positions from above.

Only the upper echelons of the ANC decide who leads, with the choices reflecting the outcome of the ruthless infighting among them. - Bruno Ganter, by e-mail

IT IS regrettable that someone of the stature of Pityana will use an occasion to remember Aggett to vent his anger at the government and the president.

I do not support the ANC or its leader, but Pityana's statements are hypocritical.

The Rev was a staunch supporter of former president Thabo Mbeki, who was very intolerant of criticism.

The intolerance of the ANC is a great legacy of Mbeki.

The former president did much for Pityana.

I don't recall Pityana defending Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu when he was attacked and ridiculed for criticising the Mbeki administration's intolerance and Mbeki's policy on HIV and Aids.

The electorate has chosen the current government and its administration under Zuma.

Pityana must respect that. He cannot place himself in a position to be a conscience for us all.

The electorate will remove the ANC government when the time is right. - Sipho Masinga, by e-mail