I SAW an advertisement (DD, June 20) that had me grabbing for my calculator.

One of the major banks in South Africa advertises personal loans at interest rates that used to be associated with the infamous loan sharks of some years ago.

(Maybe I have been leading too sheltered a life ...)

Cash loans of between R2000 and R9000 with monthly repayments over 12, 24 and 36 months.

Nothing wrong with that - obviously targeted at people who do not have access to ready cash.

The problem is the large sum of money that has to be repaid.

Example: borrow R2000 and your instalment or repayment is R328,36 over 12 months. This is a total of R3940,32 that has to be repaid - almost double the money borrowed after one year.

My calculator works it out to an interest rate of 97 percent per annum. (If you had to invest this same R2000 with this bank you would probably be paid interest of no more than five percent per annum.)

Interest rates on the range of loan amounts offered seem to vary from about 45 percent to 97 percent. No wonder Barclays Bank of England is so keen to return to lucrative South Africa.

Don't believe me - check for yourself! Page 2 of last Monday's Dispatch.

I thought at first that this had to be a mistake, or that I was working this out incorrectly. I did not think it would be legal in South Africa to charge these types of interest rates.

Ironically the advertisement carries the Proudly South African logo! - Johan van Zyl, Beacon Bay

IT IS encouraging to note that President Thabo Mbeki has decided to let the law take its course in determining the fate of Jacob Zuma.

But without perhaps realising it Mbeki breached two of the pillars of democracy as enshrined in our Constitution: presumption of innocence and due process.

What was the great urgency to rid the government of a personage of the stature of the deputy president, a comrade in arms, who had served the country well before and after liberation?

It has been announced that Zuma will be charged with two counts of corruption.

Let those who will make the appointment of a judge to preside over this matter take note that justice will have to be seen to be done.

This means that the appointment of a judge with apartheid baggage must be avoided if we are to prevent the kind of denunciation that followed upon the judgment of Justice Hillary Squires.

In the same manner as declaring an interest, a judge who might have a past record of dispensing unequal laws upon a hapless people should have the good grace to decline such an assignment.

The president needs to realise that when all the enemy begin to lavish praise upon him for putting down his most trusted comrade and second citizen of the country, it is the surest sign that he has fallen into a hole.

True comrades are never expendable no matter how lucrative the expedience. - Bhan Mahabir, La Lucia

A quest for quality learning

I READ with interest the comments made by C Holland of East London (1000 schools face closure).

Holland is wrong in his analysis of what led to the closure of the school at Peddie.

Education MEC Mkhangeli Matomela took that decision after no explanation was offered by the principal of such a well-built school as to why there were only a few learners at the school.

The school was therefore closed down because of lack of leadership; not because the children were failing, but because scholars had left that school in big numbers to join neighbouring schools where the culture of teaching and learning was upheld.

The MEC took the right decision to ensure that the learners received quality education at a properly managed school.

As he closed the school, he appealed to the community of Peddie to use the building to conduct community upliftment projects, in line with the Provincial Growth and Development Programme.

The issue of scholar transport has been explained by the Department of Education countless times and we should just blame ourselves as parents and principals for not following the procedures that are set out in the transport system.

Also if we have a union leadership that cannot end a single year without engaging its members in strike action we are bound to have a poor matric pass rate in the province unless our educators take a good look at themselves and start treating the profession that was once respected with the professionalism it deserves. - Tobile Gowa, Mdantsane

Our own police?

WE GOT new information from Nyibiba police station in NU14 that police do not take your case if you just suspect a person, as they are not "sangomas".

We went to the police station to seek assistance in confronting a person who took a cellular phone only to be told that they could not help us because we did not see the person taking the phone.

We left the police station disappointed. We then went to confront the suspect and we got the phone.

Do we have to solve "petty" crimes ourselves? In future, please put up a list of all the cases the police station cannot attend to so that people do not waste their time by coming to them for help. - Disappointed resident, Mdantsane