Poverty a ticking bomb for all in SA
FEBRUARY 9 will be remembered as our day of infamy as our country was subjected to a military siege under the guise of Sona.
The president’s speech should have focused on the cardinal and immense issue of abject poverty in our nation. The most critical issue facing South Africa today is poverty. If left unchecked it could totally devastate this country. Poverty is a ticking time bomb. It’s an iceberg, thawing at full speed, and we can see its effects in riots, increased crime and socio-economic instability.
Research indicates that every child whose physical and mental development is stunted by hunger and malnutrition stands to lose 5 to 10% in lifetime earnings.
A tragedy such as gutwrenching poverty, like violence, cannot be measured on a one-dimensional scale.
The future of this country is linked to how we urgently tackle poverty, for it is the breeding ground of helplessness, and its insidious toxic twin, hopelessness.
The larger concern is that endemic poverty is eroding the foundations of democracy. We are at a critical juncture in our history.
There are serious fears about violence truncating the country’s infant democracy.
State policies to redress the economic imbalance have been characterised by institutional gridlocks and cosmetic projects, with little or no impact. We must not find comfort in the cocoons of our blessings and not think someday soon, if we do not turn things around, that our comfort zone will be rocked and utterly devastated in ways we possibly cannot begin to imagine.
Poverty, ignorance, hunger and malnutrition still define abject poverty in South Africa.
Poverty robs people of dignity and distorts the image of God among the poor.
It is South Africa’s weapon of mass destruction. If ignited it will leave no area of our country unscathed.
It will be between those who have everything to lose and those who have nothing to lose.
Poverty is powerlessness and voicelessness. The world looks different when viewed through the eyes of a poor person.
The masses have to contend with the most emotive and moving aspects of poverty, such as extreme destitution, homelessness and starvation. The most dangerous effect of poverty is the vulnerability of the poor to extremists, who could easily mobilise them to subvert existing democratic institutions.
The more poverty there is the more people lose faith in the capacity of democratic institutions to improve their welfare. There is no freedom and certainly no democracy when millions are hungry, jobless and homeless.
When the masses start to openly revolt, South Africa will tremble. No amount of military might will subdue them. A political super-storm looms ahead. FAROUK ARAIE
Johannesburg