by Yagyah Adams
Nobody is perfect and we all err. But we all have access to God’s mercy and anyone can improve themselves.
Ironically, God’s mercy is limitless, but humans are much less forgiving. Example, when we harm others, the Torah, Bible and Qur’an advise that we must remedy the harm first instead of asking God for forgiveness and trying to bypass the victim.
This is a double-edged sword as God advises forgiveness as those who need to forgive also require God’s forgiveness for their own antics.
Where am I going with this? A friend hired a plumber to work on a leaking underground pipe. Since he was at work, my friend asked me to check on the plumber.
On arrival, I saw the plumber having lunch. I asked if he had fixed the leak. He replied that he found the leak but wanted to show the leak to my friend before repairing.
As the plumber charged per hour and my friend was only returning home at 5pm and he had found the leak at 11am, I asked if charging for 6 hours extra when the leak was detected within two hours and having lunch was justified.
The plumber was upset as he believed that having lunch and charging the customer for that time he was waiting instead of just fixing the issue was standard practice in the plumbing trade.
My friend also had a man painting while he was at work. Returning after 5pm, he noted the painter had several drums in hand, which he asked if he could have.
The housekeeper then told him that the painter had spent two hours and hundreds of litres of water cleaning the paint drums at my friend’s cost.
The Torah, Bible, Qur’an confirm that you cannot enter Heaven unless all debts on earth are paid.
Mechanics, plumbers, doctors, lawyers, electricians etc who deceive and overcharge had better take note.
We have a history of pathetic local service where artisans take advantage and abuse customers.
Ironically, we also have politicians who are wholly xenophobic and want to rid South Africa of all foreigners.
May I suggest Home Affairs consider allowing foreigners with genuine skills, like plumbers, tailors, tilers, plasterers and so on permission to stay.
Foreigners who do not add value to our society must be deported as they are a liability to our tax base.
Since we have enough local poor people who add no value and remain a burden to South Africa, keeping poor, unskilled foreigners is plain stupid.
Hopefully if foreign artisans and service providers do a similar job at viable prices, locals will stop taking advantage and conning clients and improve the quality of their work ethic and conduct.
* Cllr Yagyah Adams, Cape Muslim Congress.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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