Interest-free loans are the answer

SOMEBODY tell the students, higher education is a privilege afforded to those who have the discipline and desire to study, not a right bestowed on anyone.

Yes, it is wrong that so many get excluded. So for the disadvantaged who deserve it, the government should sponsor interest-free loans.

Once students get their degrees, it won’t be hard to use their higher income to pay off long-term, zero-interest loans. Twenty years ago, a degree was R40 000. Paid off over 20 years that’s R2 000 a year, affordable to any professional.

The #FeesMustFall movement is also tied to a fight for decolonisation from western values to find a new African self-esteem.

Esteem is good, but how much western colonialism is left? The “western” suit, for example, is worn by business- men from Beijing to Beirut.

Perhaps most colonialism already died a long time ago, swallowed up by world culture?

So these students are trying to shape their future, but fighting the world. We need to help them find a way to accept world culture and feel part of it without them trying to break it.

Good luck to the students, finding your voices and fresh directions, but with zero violence please. And interest-free loans for all. Mark Jackson Cape Town

We need to help them accept world culture