We seem doomed to be labelled a nation of borrowers. Some will say it is because we are relatively poor. But low incomes don't seem to be the cause.
Poor people find it very difficult to borrow money, everywhere.
People with money, like public servants, are the prime targets for the money-lenders, with teachers at the front of the queue. Education MEC Stone Sizani revealed this week that most of the 17000 provincial employees caught in some kind of loan shark net were in the Department of Education. Many were so entangled they were getting only a quarter of their salaries. He obviously reasons that being broke makes any human being more susceptible to bribery, embezzlement, fraud and every other kind of illegal funding. Sizani knows he's right because the scam he's talking about is being run from the corridors of government, using the Persal system to deduct payments before staff even see their money.