LETTERS

YOUR TECHNICAL ANALYST deserves to be questioned. "Highveld going Higher" was the lead line. Many like me were misled (I lost 21%) but the blow is the killer of losing confidence in graphs. To review the bankruptcy sale of an enterprise that was worth treble the amount offered, we must take a holistic view. The problem is that the chairman and Board are not being held responsible for their combined failure.

I. What has the chairman lost? He has probably gained an undeserved holiday with a fat farewell bonus.

II. But the nation has lost a top enterprise that has been surrendered to clever overseas investors.

III. Was our chairman too lazy to deal with BEE?

IV. Let us show the rest of the world that we can deal justly with the "chiefs" and the "indians": when there is a profit the chairman, the board and the workers all share equally, when there is a loss then no one is rewarded, but NO ONE!

Letter shortened

Jim Ruwers

Hillary

A balanced view

SIZWEKAZI JEKWA's In My View (Finweek July 6) was like a breath of fresh air in the otherwise muddled debate on candidates for the next president. Unfortunately the hound that is the "Friends of Jacob Zuma" has been barking too loudly to allow anyone to come up with a balanced view of who our next president may be.

A good example is how Vuyo from Libode has been hounded for daring to question Zuma's credentials for the top post. What the ANC Deputy President's supporters have thrown into the waste-paper basket is an essential leg of democracy that allows all of us to nominate whoever we prefer and let the ANC membership decide on eligibility. Unfortunately in the final analysis that is what must, should and will happen if the ANC maintains the values it's noted for. What a pity Sizwekazi's piece has not been read in a wider circle than a business magazine.

Les Xinwa

Who'll hound these ones?

AFTER HEARING about your article on corporate abusers (13 July 2006) and the people hounding them, I got some hope for our country. But unfortunately after reading the relevant article, I realised that it's only the big players that might be held accountable.

In March 2005, I bought a franchise called Real Estate Inspectors South Africa from Stelio Nathanael, based in Pretoria. I went for my week-long course and was made all sorts of promises. In May 2005, I was contacted by Erhard Hoef-lich from Somerset West. He wanted to know why I was doing business in his area. We met a week later and compared franchise contracts. I was sold the area Hout Bay to Simon's Town and the surrounding towns. Hoeflich was sold, among other areas, Cape Peninsula. We also discovered that Raymond Steyn owns Milnerton, Table View, Blaauwberg and other areas that had also been sold to Hoeflich. To date I have not yet had any explanation from Stelio Nathanael in this regard. Needless to say, not one of us has made any money from our franchises, and if you go on to his website www.homeinspectors.co.za you will see that under the contact button, where it previously had many different regions listed, you will find nothing.

I have reported this to the Franchise Association of South Africa, but it can't do a thing as neither Stelio Nathanael, Propvestors nor Real Estate Inspectors is registered with the association. Does FASA believe that someone with unethical intentions will register so that it can close him down if he does something wrong?

I invested R150 000 in Propvestors and was repaid R50 000 as part of my area that had been sold, but only after I had to ask an attorney to get my money back. Real Estate Inspectors I bought for R65 000, to discover that someone else already owned it.

My question to you is, are these people accountable to anyone?

Randel van Heerden

Via email

We're all South Africans

THOSE IN SOUTH AFRICA who belong to the Muslim faith should rather help to force our pathetic Government to solve our own crime problems rather than worrying about hate speech against Israel.

No country has the right to kidnap and torture another country's soldiers or people, that's why Israel is reacting so strongly. I'm sure any country would've responded in the same way to protect its people.

At least the government in Israel realises that the primary purpose of a government is the safety, protection, education and health of all its citizens. Our ANC Government is currently conspicuous in its failure to protect its citizens against the wave of violence. Our Muslim citizens and all other faiths and citizens should force Government rather to get down to fixing everything here in our land, because the country is bleeding.

And no country or faith has the right to say that another country has no right to exist or must be wiped from the face of the earth. That's why Israel is fighting for survival, and we here in SA are also fighting to survive against violence and crime.

Let's rather join hands against Government and say: "So far and no further." Can we ask our Muslim fellow citizens to act as energetically in this as they're currently acting against Israel?

After all, we live in SA, not the Middle East.

Name and address withheld

Rantings against Islam

I READ MULHOLLAND's article (Finweek 3 July) with great interest. It is an excellent attempt at desperately trying to justify the apartheid and racist policies of Israel by using a mixture of conjecture and allegation and twisting historical incidents to suit the argument. The question in my mind is: "Why the need?"

If Israel and those who run it had indeed learnt the lessons of Auschwitz as Mulholland claims, they would have been the world's champions of freedom, fighting tooth and nail against racism, apartheid and injustice. Instead they are the ones who are perpetrating the worst kind of injustice and racist policies on their own citizens. They have occupied the lands of those who gave them refuge when they ran from Germany to escape the gas chambers. And then they converted the refuge into the world's largest and most vicious Concentration Camp, called Gaza.

The rest of Mulholland's article and arguments and all the innuendo and allegation against Islam are the rantings of a poor man in distress at the punishment of his own conscience. Neither Islam nor its Prophet (sas) needs anyone to defend them. The opinions of people like Mulholland and those who follow his line are not worthy of notice. They are free to believe whatever they want.

I'm all for the freedom of the press. But with freedom comes accountability. And responsibility. Are we all ready for that as well? (Letter shortened)

Mirza Yawar Baing

Vi a email

Timeshare woes again

WITH REFERENCE TO your excellent article on timeshare (Finweek, 13 July 2006), one aspect that wasn't mentioned is that of Holiday Club, where the problem of too many sold points and too little available accommodation was solved by unexpectedly increasing residential points by between 50% and 75% from 2005.

Existing members consequently found that their purchased points were no longer sufficient to obtain accommodation for mid-week days (Monday to Friday) at the same resorts as before. Members were therefore forced to buy additional points or to downscale the holidays they were accustomed to.

So the member never wins, because, despite objections, Holiday Club simply went ahead with the system of increased reservation points. The winner is Holiday Club, which also had the further benefit of significant increases in the value of their properties!

What can a member of a timeshare scheme do about this?

Carel from George