EDITORIAL | Gift of the Givers once again sets an example for our rudderless government

We’re deeply concerned about the mothers of the nation, single mothers in particular, making gut-wrenching decisions on what to forgo to stretch their rands, put food on the table and care for children. 

Basic food basket prices are inflicting pain on consumers. The caustic cost of living is stinging middle-income and wealthy “heavy hitter” South Africans too, increasingly defaulting on home and vehicle loans, as we reported on Tuesday. 

Home loans are hurting consumers with a steep 27% year-on-year increase in average mortgage instalments, due largely to rising interest rates. These rate hikes have increased instalments by R4,600 a month for a R1.5m loan taken out mid-2021. 

The Reserve Bank says the rates hikes are justified, take the pain now, it argues, to bring down inflation which devours income. But how much more belt tightening can we endure? Desperate times, indeed.  

Mothers of the nation must be shaking their heads over the millions of rand spent on a second chartered passenger aircraft ferrying media and protection forces to Poland.

Or not? Mothers of the nation must be shaking their heads over the millions of rand spent on a second chartered passenger aircraft ferrying media and protection forces to Poland when President Cyril Ramaphosa joined leaders from Africa visiting Kyiv and Moscow for peacekeeping talks on the war in the Ukraine. 

Notwithstanding the drama over the aircraft being “detained” in Warsaw over a permit debacle, was it necessary to put on such a show of bravado as one of the “heavy hitters” on the continent? 

Was it wasteful expenditure, in retrospect? Will there be an inquiry, a report, then another report? 

We need solutions, a different approach, possibly summed up by humanitarian relief organisation Gift of the Givers at the tail end of their latest flood relief efforts in the Cape. 

“No challenge is insurmountable when people look beyond the brands, labels, uniforms and titles, when politics matters not, when the focus is unconditional service to fellow South Africans irrespective of class, colour, race, social strata, BEE points or section 18A certificates, when all that matters is bringing hope, ease and relief.” 

When will we, as a nation, work for the greater good instead of boxing without gloves about our differences?