The Striking Poor & The Straying Wealthy

Today I read quite a disturbing article on how the few richest Africans that can be found on Forbes magazine’s top 50 earn more than the poorest half of the continent. Upon further investigation I discovered that twelve of these people are South African, just a random detail I checked up on for my own curiosity. The rest of these elite came from Nigeria, Tanzania or Egypt amongst other places and no they weren’t all white people as the average man on the street would like to believe. It was a relatively normal (if there can ever be) mix of colour, though I did note a lack of race in other departments but I suppose that’s a problem for another generation to fix.

Reading the numbers next to these names was something of an interesting surprise as I think on how strained our economy has been in recent times due to all the political troubles and labour upheavals. Of course I suppose it should be a no brainer that such men, and the odd women, of power should barely be affected by these issues. Yet I can’t help but think that maybe it’s because these power houses haven’t really kept much investment ‘in-house’.

How sad, if that’s the case, that our own countrymen (and women) don’t feel that our country is a good investment. Imagine what that says about foreign investors? How would they then see us, without any lingering attachment other than looking for a place to put their money in?

Of course, if one had to look at the most recent cases of xenophobic violence alone, never mind the constant labour strikes that affect production and lead to layoffs and unemployment, it’s no wonder that potential investors steer clear of throwing us with any of their green.

Still, I also can’t just assume that if our few elites pump some of their wealth into our troubled economy all will be fine and dandy. After all, when has throwing money at a problem ever solved it?

There still exists the corruption and the unfortunate misconception that our countries people has that all will be fixed once either the government changes or the foreigners are thrown out. No one seems to think that they have to work harder in all this. Whatever happened to Ubuntu?

It seems to me that people are so fixated on there being one solution when in fact there needs to be a series of solutions that we all need to work (together) towards. How else are we supposed to appreciate the fruits of our labour, when there are none? Isn’t that essentially the freedom Nelson Mandela fought for us?

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me thinking this either way I hope the people don’t take too long to realize this, or something else more beneficial for the country as a whole. Preferably before we lose any more people to violence and any more potential investors turn their eyes to other countries.