One of apartheid’s greatest evils is that it made us used to welfare.
While I feel for older people who have been on housing waiting lists for decades, I wonder about the mindsets of a younger generation expecting government housing.
In fact, it appears they want government everything!
There’s an entire second generation of people for whom this handout mentality continues to be a way of life.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that government should step in when people are in need of basic services.
And I agree that it should be sustained over a period of time.
But it should be temporary, until they are back on their feet again.
And I believe we have a moral obligation to keep trying to pay our own way.
It is one of the unwritten rules of being a citizen; and of being a human, I think.
Expecting government to maintain your lifestyle, at the expense of the bigger fiscal picture is just insane, ignorant entitlement.
And yes, I am speaking about the school fees issues that cropped up last week, as they do every year.
In this day and age, how dare parents expect free schooling for their kids and then still demand that it be the best.
Not to mention the fact that they then complain bitterly about having splurged on an outrageous outfit for a matric ball, which is now cancelled.
All while the school fees remain outstanding.
The lack of prioritising logic is confounding!
Never mind the poor life lessons that they are teaching their kids (which perpetuates the welfare entitlement for yet another generation), what about the urge to want to invest in your child’s future and the sense of achievement that comes with it?
Apartheid has left us many legacies of disempowerment, but we don’t have to embrace them so willingly any longer.
Withholding payment for necessary government services is no longer a form of protest.
In a democracy, it is in fact a form of sabotage.
Apartheid forced us to ignore and subvert the laws, because the laws were unjust.
But now it seems we are unable to let go of that mindset and do the right thing for the sake of it.
The only thing it does is weaken the collective and - for that moment - show your neighbours that you can also spoil your child.
Neither thing teaches your child anything of value, other than do the same with their children one day.