Why single out Helen Zille's age and race?

Editor Sifiso Mahlangu wasted no time in announcing Helen Zille’s age and race in his opinion piece, “In the DA, upward mobility is conditional” (The Star, June 17).

This smacks of ageism, racism and selectivity. He forgot to mention Zille’s struggle credentials and her sterling work on the anti-apartheid newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail, under the stewardship of the late Allister Sparks.

Mahlangu also seems to have forgotten that black DA (Democratic Alliance) candidates have been given the chance at the mayoral seat. One male DA mayor left for reasons of his own, while one young female medical doctor, Mpho Phalatse, was hounded out of office before she could even prove herself.

After Phalatse, we saw some incompetents warming the mayoral seat, one or two with dubious credentials. Under their watch, Johannesburg, the so-called World-Class African City, has been reduced to a slum, with crime and corruption rampant.

No doubt Zille is a polarizing and abrasive figure, but if she can kick butt and restore this city to its pristine place among South Africa’s metros, why not give her the chance to do so?

To single out Zille’s age and race is mischievous. Progressive Western nations do not have a mandatory (compulsory) retirement age as we do.

Some of our competent, NRF-rated academics, for example, are forced to retire at age 65 and are expected to play with their grandkids or fill in crossword puzzles!

As for Helen Zille being white, I thought we were a non-racial society?

Harry Sewlall 

Parkmore