Johannesburg - A candlelit dinner is romantic. But don't romanticise studying under a candle light.
This is a tale of duality, of how attempting to bridge the poverty gap can grow a monster gatekeeper that doesn't allow people to exit the poverty trap.
It is rooted in poor management, a culture of corruption and entitlement.
The ruling party is in a R200 billion debt on one hand, and giving away free money on the other.
I use the term “free money” with intention, as opposed to “social grant”.
I want us to think of it differently as we look at the so-called gruesome threesome of poverty, unemployment and inequality. It is a social grant to you, but to those who receive it, it is free money from the government that they naturally grow entitled to.
As we have learned from nature, everything that is, is because of duality. The yin and yang, if you may. Night, and day. As above, so below. What you do on the left must be done on the right. Cause and effect, pros and cons.
The thing about pros and cons is that an empty stomach turns a blind eye to the cons. This code is encrypted in our DNA. This is why a person with nothing to lose is more dangerous; it is why we lock our doors at intersections when the traffic light says stop. And the reason we hand over our belongings when a weapon is wielded against us.
As far as duality is concerned, this free money is both a pro and a con. It puts cornrows on the heads of mothers whose babies have cobwebs in their stomachs.
It puts loaves of bread on dusty tables. With milk, it moisturises parched mouths, dry throats, and cracked lips of those babies with cobwebs in their tummies.
This free money is never enough to grant all your needs, but it pays for those diabetes pills that grandma needs.
This free money cradles our card playing careers in the townships. It feeds the alcoholics that live inside our mothers and fathers. See them in the taverns, at street corners shooting dice in an attempt to double the grant.
To them, life is like a pair of dice; like a stone, you keep rolling and hoping for the best.
The impact: the next generation inherits this way of living from the nest. They too lay eggs and occupy the same nest. We are born into, and live this rolling life.
A generational curse passed down through genetics, the epitome of blood like the Tiffany diamond dug from our nest; a shack that could burn with many more when the wind dances too close to a naked flame. A flame born of a matchstick igniting a candle.
A candlelit dinner is romantic. But don't romanticise studying under a candle light.
This free money comes from a government ruled by a party that is failing to manage its own financial affairs. The social security system has been in place for more than two decades and it seems to help the poor survive, but it doesn't allow them to exit the poverty trap.