OPERATION MPUKU - Open Letter to Authorities

Willem Basson

Environmental Health

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

Tel: 041 - 5065413

Cell: 0794900416

Email: wbasson@mandelametro.gov.za

Re: Your previous email to me: Rodent Control Program in the area of Central.

My dear Mr Basson

I am in receipt of your email dated 30 August 2016 in which 23 people, of which only three I have copied in the mail, these being the Times Media news desk, the owner of the building I live in and the Mayor’s office, have been copied into the mail; the latter only because I was dealing with the Mayor’s office form the beginning. I had no alternative to this because not one of your Metro departments answered telephone calls.

The tone of your letter is disrespectful to say the least. Calling me ignorant is highly disrespectful and unprofessional… because you do not know what knowledge I have, nor do you know the amount of research I have conducted into the rat epidemic, not only in the Metro but in all residential areas of South Africa.

For what reason the deaths and injuries caused by rats gets so little media attention, I can only speculate – the information is being suppressed for some or other reason. The information would definitely be damaging to the tourism in our country. This very email you have sent me is empirical evidence of a cover-up. Either there is a cover-up by the South African government or you are totally inefficient and ineffectual in what you do at your Environmental Health Department, particularly with your Rodent Control.

I have not threatened you with the Mayor’s office – you are feeling threatened by my refusal to kowtow to anyone, and even less so with someone who is paid to do a job and is not doing it. My correspondence is obviously seen as a threat due to my researched knowledge of the subject at hand. If you are feeling threatened by your own inadequacy, please don’t turn it around and make a comment like “Refrain from threatening me with the Mayor”.

Thank you for the following information – “The Plague Endemic area has been predetermined by the NDOH and the WHO”. From previous correspondence this area is designated as Koega. Because an area is designated a Plague Endemic Area does not mean that the area immediately adjacent to that area is safe from the threat of disease carrying rats which bite and cause the death of people. Those who are particularly at risk are babies, the infirm and the prisoners.

May I remind you that you do not work for the Mayor, but you work with the Mayor, and together the Metro Departments work for the people . You are paid by our taxes. That is why you are called a civil servant. You are a servant to the public.

I fully understand that the Mayor would not and should not go against National and International Law and Protocol. However, you are simply not doing your job! You are not in control the over-population of rats in our Metro.

“Seeing that you have picked up and “preserved” the dead rat which might have died from our rodenticides you may just as well throw it in the trash container. Your one, (sic) dead rat is of no use to the disease preventative control program”. This statement of yours is insolent and rude. I again ask the question; Why would you not test this rat for diseases it may or may not be carrying? It did not die from your ‘so called’ rodenticides, as you have stated. It was very much alive, together with his family, in my kitchen. Why would you be so unwilling to be open to the fact that your Plague Endemic area predermined by the NDOH and the WHO may need to be revised, since Koega is adjacent to the Metro?

As far as your NMMM Environmental Health sub-directorate having a “permanent, ongoing surveillance program is concerned, I can only say that the inspector from your department who came to do a site inspection said “Eyo…this is bad. They must come and sort this out. I will tell them”.

I understand that the last outbreak of the plague in this area was in 1981, That statement is as crazy as saying all swans are white. That is a guarantee of nothing.

I am particularly concerned about the number of babies, prisoners, the old and infirm people who are being bitten and have died from rat bites. This over-population of rats the size of small cats has surely reached epidemic proportions. May I add that the notorious “Central” area is part of the Heritage walk. Our tourists will have rat companions walking alongside them as the rats are used to humans in their presence and do not run away. They merely look at you and walk slowly on.

You may say you have closed this case and you “shall not entertain your speculations any longer”. My dear Mr Basson, I have not even started yet. When our city and the cities and towns are cleared of disease carrying rodents, I will close the case. I would just like to inform you that my particular home is now rodent free. I am not doing this for my own benefit but for the benefit of all the peoples of our country. For that reason, the case will not be closed, no matter what you say.

As opposed to your “THANX” at the end of your mail, I shall do it the right way.

Yours truly

Dianne Lang.