Festive season underscores hardship for many citizens

Even the name is misleading. As billions of people across the globe enjoyed the “festive season”, it is worth remembering that this season we have just gone through, in this economic climate, was far from a happy one for many ordinary citizens.

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer when many readers of this column are preparing for a new year with optimism after a few weeks of quaffing ice-cold beers and tucking into their ham, roast chicken, “seven colours”, turkey or whatever was on the table over the holidays.

I really, really, don’t begrudge readers who gorged on fine meals or had fun with friends and family in many other ways. It is good to unwind and bond with loved ones.

Yet it is worth being mindful of how fortunate we are that on Christmas day we had a meal on the table, that there were drinks in the fridge and that January means returning to a job.

For many of our countrymen and women, this festive season and other periods of merriment are hugely stressful.

In October 2024, the Altron Fintech Household Resilience Index revealed that average debt for households is now at its highest levels in 15 years, meaning many who had something on the table had achieved this by nearly bankrupting themselves through “mashonisas” and other loan arrangements.

In the house, children demanded presents and other trinkets of the season. Whatever money came in immediately whooshed out as debit orders did their thing.

The “festive season” is the time when we all realise with clarity that this economy is not working for the people of this country. If one out of three adults of working age are unemployed, what are they putting on the table?

Using the wider definition of unemployment in SA, which includes those who have become so despondent they have not sought work in the past three months, then unemployment is 42%.

That means that nearly half of those adults who can work in SA are not working at all.

In the first quarter of 2024, the youth unemployment rate was 45.5%.

So, for most people, the “festive season” has been a time of stress, of tears, of reminders that life is extremely hard and unequal.

It is a time many would rather avoid. It is a time those of us who had something to eat and something to celebrate should be mindful of. This time of cheer is a time of despondency and despair for our fellow citizens.

We are now in January. That brings with it demands for school fees, uniforms, and many other old and new needs. For many, this week and the coming months will exacerbate the stresses of the festive season.

It is for these reasons, these tough times, that we all must think seriously about what it is we are really trying to achieve in this country. I am haunted by the strides nations that were far poorer, far less blessed and gifted with natural resources, have made in the past 30 years.

Singapore has continued to be a powerhouse. China has in the past 30 years come to dominate the world, and has the traditional superpowers — Russia and the US — shaking with fear at its rise.

China has lifted a billion of its people out of poverty in 40 years, according to the OECD.

Many other countries in the global south are turning their economies around and helping to end poverty.

Why are we failing to do the same? Between 1994 and 2007, we were doing well, but since 2009 we have been walking backwards on almost every measure.

Our policies seem to be developed to perpetuate our problems. Our government’s incompetence and failure to govern ethically and conscientiously seems almost like it is a deliberate campaign of sabotage.

We must break this cycle. How long can poor people take the terrible conditions and corruption they live under? We have seen the rise of citizen movements across the globe, and we know they are a reaction to corporates who treat workers like garbage and governments that are corrupt and unresponsive.

Poverty, unemployment and inequality are an ugly eyesore on the face of SA.

We see it most glaringly in the festive season, but it is a constant, year-round phenomenon.

The longer we let this sore fester the more dehumanised we become, the more we dehumanise our children by normalising the poverty and sickening inequality of this place.

Dear reader, I would like to leave you with the hope that, in 2025, our politicians will do better than they have done in the past 16 years. I hope South Africa can capitalise on its presidency of the G20 this year to revive our economy and put millions of our people into work.

It is possible. We must not just dream. We must do.