There is a very small lad that begs at the stop street outside our Estate on the North Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He is that small because of his severely contorted feet and legs that he drags along the tar whilst heaving himself forward on his crutches. He is 16 years old though he looks much younger and at the same time very old.
As I come and go from our estate, I wonder how a lad like this comes to be in the position he is in; body broken; future non-existent; a desperate human being. But to be totally honest, for me – a member of the privileged class of our country – he often becomes simply another demand albeit heart-breaking, on my wallet. How often I have returned from my day and recoiled as I saw him. With the greatest will in the world, I get so tired of the poverty; the sickening stench of inequality; just too many car guards, too many beggars, too many unemployed people, too many drunkards and drug addicts. One cannot possibly keep up. This country can be overwhelming in its lack. But I am so fortunate – so “blessed” as we might say – that I get to go to my home at day’s end, have a nice whiskey and a hot meal and blot out all that lack from my mind.
And in truth we live constantly in the tension caused by obscene inequality. It is just a part of our everyday reality and our collective psyche has been seared numb; we look but we don’t see; we listen but we don’t hear; we smell but we wind up the window and put on the aircon. But it is simply too dangerous to continue responding in this way – or is it?
Suddenly, a firm capitalist favourite comes to power and the air suddenly smells sweet again. We drink it in and we toast the future. And the little lad at the stop street is less of a frustration somehow. We buy him a pie and a Coke. Now everyone is happy – the post-Zuma vibe is euphoric. The Rand strengthens – awesome! The stock market goes up – hooray! Unemployment will almost certainly decline along with poverty and inequality and crime – woohoo! The NHI is still on the cards; nice idea but…; Free higher education and tax increases to support it – now hold on a moment, it’s getting hot in this kitchen. Let’s rewind a little to all that good stuff can’t we? Expropriation of land without compensation – now stop right there you are going way too far! That’s never worked and it will destroy our economy and it violates our rights and we will go the way of Zimbabwe and who knows who had land stolen and when anyway. Our fear runneth over.
But we have missed the point totally – again: the economy is not the point – dignity is the point; humanity is the point; equal opportunities; long overdue redress – that’s the point. Our little lad at the stop street, what does he care about the economy? After over two decades of broken promises – what do millions of South Africans care? What do I care? I care just enough to sacrifice the cost of a pie and a coke. This is no longer good enough.
In response to the emotional-more-than-economic issues of our time: land expropriation without compensation, free tertiary education, the NHI – we might consider not so much what we might lose – but the lost; those people who do not know what it feels like to live a dignified existence let alone a privileged one. Perhaps we could see – really see – a lad with contorted legs eking out no more than a pathetic existence; a family whose umpteenth shack has been destroyed by fire; a mother – unemployed and destitute – caring daily for her 15-year old Down’s Syndrome daughter on a grant of no more than a few Rand a day. Perhaps we could see the classroom in which 150 learners get packed; see it; hear it; smell it; taste it. Not just put up our protectionist, pseudo-academic arguments for why attempts to right the wrongs – the evils – of the past, will fail.
Perhaps we might not turn first to fear-filled racist rhetoric; parrot the endless “look what happened to Zimbabwe” nonsense. Might we not ask how can we help to restore dignity and well-being to people? Might we not ask how we could possibly contribute to a constructive dialogue around how to bring our people out of poverty and dispossession; how to make land expropriation work? Might we not ask these questions before we ask how we can safeguard our pension/get out of this place/protect our land?
Finally, if we imagine that land expropriation is the most dangerous thing for our economy and our country at large then we aren’t paying attention.
Inequality is the real time bomb.
Justin Foxton is founder of
The Peace Agency. His writing is dedicated to the memory of Anene Booysens, Emmanuel Josias Sithole and Suna Venter.
Inequality is a major issue in every developing economy, of that there is no doubt. Inequality is not a measure of poverty, yet so often these words – inequality and poverty – are used in the same sentence as if they are the same thing. The Economist defines poverty as ‘a short and wretched life with little or no access to permanent, formal shelter, potable water and reliable electricity; little or no opportunity for children’s education; inadequate nutrition; and insufficient income to afford the most basic of life’s needs.’ How many South Africans live in that space? Probably less than 5%, despite what STATS SA claims. Inequality is crudely defined as the gap between the haves and the have-nots as measured by what the top 10% earn relative to and bottom 10%, usually measured by the GINI co-efficient. If there are 13.2 formal dwellings in SA with access to electricity and potable water housing, on average, four people, with access to free education and free food at school, we would have 52 million people living outside the Economist definition above. Add to that 17 million recipients of social grants, we have a situation that I would argue is different to most developing countries.
So my point is, have we got the facts of our poverty and inequality circumstances correct? It is easy to become emotional about both, it is also easy to exaggerate the extent of the problem, both of which distort the narrative in a manner which is unproductive.
And I sense, Justin ,certainly from some of the saner media I read, that there is the beginnings of a really sensible discussion on how best to get an equitable, just solution to this problem, which still doesn’t bankrupt the country. We have to balance humanity with economy, I believe, especially given the economic pit into which JZ has reduced us.
The populist rants to expropriate all land into the hands of the government are as extreme as the “look at Zimbabwe” rants and I’m sure there is a credible path between which will redress some of the undoubted inequities of the past.
The solution will ultimately benefit the economy and thus also provide humanity and dignity.
Yes Kim the rhetoric has been dialled back a notch or two I am happy to say. This must not be reduced to a political football (as all are currently doing)…it is too big and too important….not to mention sensitive. It will happen and I sense it will happen well.
Brilliant as always, Justin.
We really need to make the concerted effort required to find the interventions that address the root, the core of our inequitable system, and support and amplify these.
A decent education that equips one for an economically self-sustaining life, health care that deals allows our population to have healthy bodies and minds, and the opportunity to access the economy through a job, however simple that job may be, are definitely all important for reducing our GINI co-efficient. But how…?
There are many existing interventions that address these areas – instead of throwing up our hands at the magnitude of the problem, we would do better to identify those initiatives, and become involved with and support them. And where we can’t identify an initiative on our own community – start one.
Now is the time for us all to invest in our future. Be involved. Wind the window down and engage.
Thank you Robyn…yes there are certainly initiatives that are addressing root causes…pfp not least of those. We need to redouble our efforts to activate the active citizen spirit in us all so we get out of the grandstand and onto the field.