The ‘right to have’ is ticking time bomb for the youth

Twitter has been abuzz about the abusive nature of people who believe they are simply deserving of financial assistance.

Others felt that privilege allowed for some to look in judgment at those who rightly ask for assistance. Personally, I believe we have created a sense of entitlement among citizens.

And now we have a ticking time bomb on our hands. We have a population that think they have the “right” to be given houses (among other things) and “deserve houses” more than others. While I am all for the empowerment and mobilisation of youth, we now find that housing protests are led by youngsters who burn tyres and hold suburbs hostage.

Case in point: the issue of RDP housing in South Africa. While there is nothing wrong with it, we need to understand why the government came up with such an idea in the first place. Government is under a civil obligation to prevent homelessness to the best of their abilities, but we must also be realistic about the chances. The same with employment: we cannot all be government employees.

ALSO READ: The ‘right to have’ is ticking time bomb for the youth

Where is the ambition to own a house bigger than an RDP house? And when a 22 year old believes he deserves this house more than a 70-year-old grandmother who still calls a shack her home? Not only has “free housing” created a sense of entitlement, it has killed the ambition to excel.

Are some people not too young to believe their “time is now”? What happened to hard work, perseverance and dreaming big? South Africa has an estimated population of 53 million people.

Where would we be as a country if we all believed the government owes us? Now imagine if this government cannot meet all our needs and desires?

The country would burn… An attitude of entitlement does not breed responsibility. In fact, youngsters come to believe hard work is only meant for those who do not know how to protest.

What we really need, is a youth that can see through the truth of what politicians promise us, and who have the determination to achieve goals in legal ways – without handouts.