I’m not likely to earn R220m ever, let alone see it

IOFTEN feel amazed at the general lack of amazement around me. We should be more than amazed.We should by downright gob-smacked. A front page story in a Sunday newspaper listed the ways in which the Gupta family had allegedly managed to divert money intended for helping the poor in South Africa.

Obviously I cannot check the facts, because I find it hard even to check my own bank account, but it seems some R220 million has found its way into the wrong bank accounts. I tried to estimate whether I was ever likely to see – let alone earn – as large a some of money.

Think of it in real terms. I earn enough money each month to pay my municipal bills, fill my car’s petrol tank and feed myself and two cats. There’s not a great deal left over.

But if I had been frugal and managed somehow (which is certainly not the case) to put R1 000 into a savings account every month for 60 working years I would have saved about three-quarters of a million rand.

I wish I had. Compared to the average South African wage earner I suppose I’m doing pretty well. I would be surprised if as much as 2% of South Africans ever manage to accumulate a million rands in their entire working lives.

At least I have a job, which is more than half the population do (and a bank account into which generous politicians are more than welcome to deposit the occasional spare million or two).

So when I read about an amount of R220m I think of it as the entire life savings of more than 200 people. In reality it’s much more than that because few of us manage to save even R100 a month, let alone a thousand.

The Sunday story alleged that R20m had been spent on fancy cars (the potential life savings of 20 people) and R30m had been spent on a lavish Sun City wedding (30 people’s life-savings earnings lost) and a further R40m into a private bank account (40 lifetime savings lost, for what? Petty cash?). That’s only part of long list of ill-gotten splurges. When I read figures like that I can see why so many workers in this country are beyond angry. A hard-working factory worker slaves away for nine soul-destroying hours a day and earns barely enough to pay his kids’ school fees, then reads that some fat-cat with no qualification or experience is handed a directorship that pays enough to buy a private jet and a million buck car. And all he’s had to do to get that money is suck up to a corrupt politician.

I can sometime understand why there are tyres burning in the streets and rocks being hurled at cars. It’s amazing they’re not hurling burning politicians at rocks.

Last Laugh

A taxi driver took his vehicle into the garage for a service. When he returned to collect it, the mechanic told him: “Your brakes are completely shot, but it will cost more than the vehicle is worth to fix them.” “So what should I do?” “Don’t worry. It should be okay. I just fitted a louder hooter.”