Who will help us?

I am a South African and I have been fortunate enough to visit –though briefly to some- five of the nine provinces South Africa is divided in; Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State and Mpumalanga. In all these provinces, or at least some of the cities within these provinces, there seems to be a large number of homeless and extremely poor people varying from toddles up to men and women old enough to be great grand fathers.

I have seen these people sleep on and wake up from pavements, some of them posing shamelessly on busy roads begging for money and leftovers from by-passers and drivers while a few of them are wondering around towns with pluck-cards  looking and asking for jobs that could at least help them chew just for one night.

All praises to the advent of democracy in 1994, because after that fateful era came prominent people who knew how it felt to starve or to be poor. South Africans voted for them to represent the country. They reassured not just the minority race, but everyone who was and is on the breadline that –even if it’s little- but they will bring help to them.

However, right in the eyes of homeless, poor and un-employable people, those figures chose to fatten their own pockets with the money that is meant to save those who are in the ‘titanic’.

Because of this corruption, greed and inconsideration, all eyes now look up, not just to the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to the owners of private businesses and community based organisations. Yes, some of these entities do what they can to help fellow South Africans by providing scholarships to promising students emerging from poor backgrounds, by implementing skills development programmes for the illiterate and unemployable people as well as empower those who are able to help others to continue doing so.

As a result of these initiatives, many have grown and matured and consequently carried on the legacy by establishing their own helpful resources and inventions. But, with all that being said and done, there is still a very long journey South Africans need to embark on in regards to shaping this country and helping the poor.

In the plight of all this, local entities that have the ability to financially support the people who help, seem to be more into providing help for countries that have been hit by natural disasters, which in the eyes of those who are poor come across as trying to make impression to other countries as opposed to feeding locals first.

Yes, South African companies MUST help other countries when natural disasters have shaken them. But the question is, how do these companies manage to provide help to Japan and Haiti when they prove to be struggling to fund an NGO that deals with homeless people in Mpumalanga, a young woman who spends her own money to equip rural students in the Eastern Cape or an orphanage home sheltering rape and HIV/Aids victims in Soweto?

Where and how do these companies get the money and the resources to provide assistant to other countries when here at home the civil society is in dire need of a small sum?

One might actually find that, South Africa is not really equipped as far preparing for when these natural disasters hit home. Perhaps Haiti and Japan will come through for us? But when?

So, in the mean time ‘we’ stay unemployable, poor and sickly while we wait for natural disasters to hit hey? Because then someone from somewhere will be willing to help?

Happy read!

Making money eGoli

From an early age, I knew of three places in South Africa where one can make money regardless of whether or not one is educated. Those places are Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwazulu Natal. From what I heard, back then, Gauteng was the best place to get jobs, with the mines supported by hard rocks that are made solid by the sweat of every broke illiterate black men.

My turn came to come and see this place my fellow Xhosa peeps dubbed eRhawutini. Of course, before coming here, my perception of the place had changed from that which I had when I still wiped my snorts with a tongue. I had grown and therefore all that I saw and still see is of the view of a grown up.

The young

There are many young people here and most of them –if not all- possess the same aim of making and having lots of money. Yes, they are inspired by the old and rich people of this city and they want to vacate their homes for better houses in Sandton, Kyalami and Fourways.

To a few, this is a feasible plan while to many it’s a dream and an impossible one to attain because of the lack of one of the most important useful tools for success; education.

With that being said, uneducated youngsters do manage to make this money. A few do part-time jobs in Petrol stations, in the retail industry, supermarkets and restaurants. A lot, however, get this money from practically pick-pocketing people on the streets. The latter, in my opinion, possibly makes the same amount as the young men and women who are ill-treated by attention seeking celebrities in restaurants. They merely chose this path in life because for them it is the easiest, despite the danger it involves. Funny enough, most of the people who do the pick-pocketing end up living on the streets. It is then that the dangers of this path prevail.

The business people

I am not referring to business people in the corporate sphere nor am I talking about street vendors but disabled people on the streets who live to beg people for money on freeways. Yes, I consider them business people because to them what they do is way of making money. Of course, they don’t have to work. Showing the car drivers driving by that they are blind, crippled and homeless is enough to earn them a living.

I look at these women and men and ask myself as to why do they go and beg on the streets instead of walking to government’s social departments and apply for disability grants.

In my opinion, if they have the minds to get into a taxi all the way from Soweto or Joburg CBD to Sandton streets, Fourways or Randburg just to merely stand all day long and beg for money, they are smart enough to know where to go in order to apply for free money.

I am thinking, they realised that the easiest way to get money is to manipulate pity and guilt out of those with good hearts. They know how to stand for one to pity them, they know just what to say for the old grannies to feel sorry for them and they know what kind of expression they need to apply on their faces just to get that one young man feeling guilty.

Many years back, this business was rolling. These days, however, people do not buy in it. I think maybe they have come to realise just how much of a scam this is. Only a few people submit to it by giving money to these people. Some went as far as taking some of these people into their homes in an effort to provide sustainable help to these beggars.

Sadly, those who helped live to tell a very shocking tale of someone whom – after being helped – found a way to rob the helper of every valuable possession s/he had. As a result, these people end up going back to beg for money on the streets.

I have come across two people who tell you upfront that R5 or coins are not enough. I found it surprising that at such a state they could be so choosy.

Happy read!