The people's priorities for the new year

Stef Venter, Centurion

Crime and corruption is still a major problem in South Africa. My wish for 2012 is that more measures will be taken to reduce it. I believe people such as the police and state prosecutors responsible for the administration of justice and combating crime, should get better salaries. This will motivate them to carry out their duties without the need for bribery and corruption. There should be absolutely no tolerance for corruption in the police service, as they are the people we are supposed to look up to for protection.

Olivia Hart-Hughes, Pretoria

The stampede for registration at the University of Johannesburg in January was shocking. My hope for 2012 is that this has been a wake-up call for government to give urgent attention to improve accessibility to tertiary education and prevent this from happening again. The youth are our future and nothing should stand in their way to further their education. I would also like to see more job opportunities and that people will be appointed in jobs based on competence instead of their race.

Shalen Gajadhar, Ormonde

My hope for 2012 is that Government will begin to tackle the widening gap in wealth distribution. This needs to be done through access to education, a tertiary education institution, which offers back skills on a study-now, pay-later model and tougher regulations in private industries to up-skill employees. With inflation, rates, taxes and tolls constantly raised, people are becoming poorer. I hope that the ANC once again highlights education and service delivery as paramount to a steady growth path.

Dr Thabo Sefatsa, Secunda

I believe we can change a lot in the public healthcare sector by just changing our attitude. The majority of the problems within the health sector result from wrong attitudes – from security personnel to doctors and nurses. We must remember it is our government, our problems and our solutions.

Shiven Sunder, Jhb

I hope that in the new year, more money will be allocated to education, so that we can maintain, upgrade and build more schools, especially in rural areas. I would also like to know what government is planning to do to curb crime.

Lee Smith, Pretoria

Hahaha, whatever the expectations, they will never be able to fulfil them. There simply isn’t enough money in the country. Too few people earn enough to pay sufficient tax and the people in Government splash out. It never goes back to the people, where it is needed. I’m in Turkey now and things are exactly the same here. Corruption everywhere!

Trevor Khanyile

My expectations for 2012 are the professionalisation and skilling of municipal officials to be able to deliver the services government promised to the people. There is gross inefficiency at municipalities, which hinders delivery of services leading to people saying that government is not doing anything for them. If officials have the correct skills they will be able to find creative ways of creating jobs at local municipality level. There needs to be a close link between national and local government to avoid this thing of municipalities being placed under administration after officials have squandered the money. Mud schools should not be something that still characterises South Africa. Indeed people in the rural areas will continue to say that government have not done anything for them if they still do not have electricity and clean water. All these are issues of capacity nothing else. Government needs to really skill and re-skill officials at local government levels or else nothing will ever change.

General