Readers The photo on Page 3, "Qunu waits in vain for its favourite son" (January 30), speaks volumes about the real Madiba magic. While former president Mandela and his extended family live in luxury, his sister is obviously impoverished and struggling to make ends meet.

Whites are often reminded of their privileged past and their obligation to help those oppressed during apartheid. No such responsibility seems to be applicable to the beneficiaries of our democratic South Africa.

The Mandela family should be ashamed of themselves for bemoaning the oppression of the past, while at the same time not addressing the needs of their own relatives.

The gap between rich and poor may be an apartheid legacy, but is compounded by the hypocrisy of the current regime. - Jan E de Klerk, by e-mail

• SUNDAY Times could've done the nation a better service by choosing a better, brighter, happier picture of Madiba for its front page: as we have known him. He's been that all his life. Mosese, Bloemfontein