Exorbitant deposit cancellation fee. No to long-term

My mum fixed R100 000 in June 2015 for 4 years at 8.75% compounded annual. Unfortunately at the time we were mislead the penalty fee to access the deposit amount is reasonable. Only to our surprise when we wanted to access a portion of the amount with 1 year and 5 months left to maturity, we told the R10 600 had to paid as penalty. That was equivalent to 1 year and half interest earned on the deposit. Meaning that we only received less than a year of interest accrued. Capitec is reaping off clients on cancellation fees. Upon investing half of the original amount for 6 months, we noted that the interest rate is 7.01%. Advice to all customers, only fixed 6 months or 1 year with Capitec as the interest % on these are only 1% or 2% lesser. But this will be reduce the risk of exorbitant cancellation fee in the event of an emergency. You can always renew the deposit period for another 6 months or 1 year.