WHEN I read recent HAS contributions about not being safe on the streets any more I was sure they were talking about the lawlessness in and around some of our cities and even towns and villages.

Then I realised they were bemoaning the end of apartheid in South Africa with all its horrors and injustices.

South Africa was a country ruled for so long by imperialists like Britain and Holland, but it left millions of South Africans jobless and uneducated.

In the years to come, education for young blacks will slowly but surely greatly improve the situation and investment will hopefully provide the jobs - a big change from exploitation.

South Africa is a young, emerging nation coming to terms with democracy, warts and all.

Just thank Nelson Mandela for controlling the ANC who wanted bloody revenge for their suffering under the fascists who ruled during apartheid. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.

A NUMBER of HAS correspondents have commented on the situation in South Africa, with particular reference to law and order.

I'm sure that crime is a major problem, especially in Johannesburg and the townships, but please do not use this as a stick to beat the entire population.

It is a miracle South Africa emerged from the apartheid years without a civil war. Take a moment to contemplate what might have resulted if this had happened. Britain, as the colonial power, would in all probability have been drawn into the conflict, but on whose side?

Those of us who have visited Cape Town and taken the time to walk around the ruins of District 6, still undeveloped after 40 years, realise what despicable cruelty was inflicted upon the black and coloured populations during those dark days.

South Africa has a long way to go, but with the World Cup in 2010 as a focus for community cohesion it will go from strength to strength. - David Lacey, Durham