Cry our beloved city

Walk the Line - an editor's perspective on all things newsworthy

Unhappy businessman

When Cyril Ramaphosa took over the Presidency, the FNB/Bureau of Economic Research Consumer Confidence Index for the first quarter of 2018 rose to a record high of +26 index points.

This was the highest level since a decade ago. At the time this was a welcome relief as the index hovered around -8 points for most of 2017.

Things of course quickly changed for the rest of 2018 as the honeymoon period drew to a close, with consumer confidence remaining at a low of seven points in the fourth quarter of last year.

Consumers in 2018 thus enjoyed a brief spell of euphoria, as many looked forward to an era of economic growth and prosperity.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, where dubious characters called men of God tell their congregants to eat grass, citizens of Mzansi were in a for a nasty shock.

After all, the worms had not yet spilled out of the mouldy can, allowing for all skeletons of corruption to crawl out.

This is partly why the honeymoon period ended in such a blaze of mediocrity – for 10 years the economy was whipped and beaten into submission. The state-owned enterprises were bankrupt, bled dry and hardly functioning.

So into 2019 we marched like riders on a storm, and since then talk of the town is that consumer confidence is plummeting.

After all, do we really have any sort of confidence left that the economy will turn around while the suffering continues for the taxpayer?

There is also still no end in sight for the high rate of unemployment, while crime and corruption remain rampant.

Back home, the Advertiser posted a question on Facebook what residents think the metro should be doing to uplift or improve Boksburg.

The reaction reflected an overwhelmingly lack of confidence in the metro’s service delivery. This is understandable, for this city does not inspire confidence.

We sit with crumbling roads, constant power outages, storm-water drainage that does not work properly and even the streets are dirty. We are not even talking about the poor state of the CBD.

Residents commented that the metro needs to look at maintaining infrastructure, while there was a common call for street lights and potholes to be repaired.

Others called for streets to be resurfaced, for the lake to be remediated once and for all, for squatter camps to be improved, cable theft to be addressed, vagrants to be dealt with, for more libraries to be built and services at state hospitals, including clinics, to be improved.

A tall order for any government. So yes, people are not happy. You just wonder if the ruling government really cares, or is all the promises merely an illusion considering this is the year of elections?

While consumer confidence stutters along, it is probably also no wonder that the Indigo Global Wellness Index has placed South Africa last on a list of which countries are healthiest and happiest.

One-hundred-and-fifty-one countries were part of the study.

The index looks at 10 metrics in a bid to work out which countries in the world are the most – and least – healthy. These are blood pressure, blood glucose, obesity, depression, happiness, alcohol use, tobacco use, exercise, healthy life expectancy, and government spending on healthcare.

South Africa managed to rank lower than those countries placed at the bottom of the index – Ukraine, Egypt, and Iraq.

Canada came first, followed by Oman, Iceland, Philippines, Maldives, Netherlands, Singapore, Laos, South Korea, and Cambodia.

So yes, we are an unhappy and unhealthy country, and it does not take rocket science to work out why.

We desperately need some kind of morale booster in this land, because despite all the heroic talk of fighting the forces of pessimism, the reality is that people are losing confidence in SA’s welfare.