South Africa has for years been having a very large number of poor people, it has for years been having a very high number of unemployed people and it has also for years been faced with a large number of deaths from HIV-Aids, leaving behind many child headed families.
I am amazed that it is only now that Covid-19 has reared its ugly head that every Johannes, Piet and Mary, seems to care that the less fortunate exists amongst us.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that there has always been large companies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), Non-Profit Organisations (NPO), and to an extent certain individuals that have taken care of the less fortunate on a regular basis, but since the discovery of Covid-19 many in our community have come to the fore to make ‘donations’ to the poor only for fame and to be seen and captured by the lenses of the media.
I commend a political party has made it known that it will take serious steps against its officials that donate to the poor, and then take pictures to show off.
Most of the people that are making these donations are only doing this to ‘Show off’. I believe so because the pictures that are taken and posted (mostly on popular social networks) after these ‘genuine donations’ are made, do tell a story, at least to me.
They tell me a story that most of those that make these donations believe that they are ‘Mightier than Though’, they believe that the world should revolve around them, and they also believe that they should be given publicity at the expense of the needy.
This is a shame!
What some of these donors do not tell us is that they, themselves, did not even spend a cent from their pockets to can be able to make these donations possible. Some of them do not tell us that these donations come from illicit money, and they definitely do not tell us that after the end of Covid-19 they want nothing to do with the poor, that they would rather die than be seen with or amongst the poor. Some of these donors, believe me I know, have never even set foot in an informal settlement, yet they tell us they care. Do you really want to tell me that they have cared all along, even before Covid-19?
I beg to differ!
For many moons, a poor family has slept without food, for a long time a poor child has gone to school on an empty stomach and for this long time Johannes, Piet and Mary were nowhere to be seen with their ‘kindness’.
For the genuine donors, I wish you can continue to do the wonderful work that you have been doing for all these years and I know and believe that your work will be blessed abundantly. As for those that want to be famous at the expense of the poor, please stop it, I beg of you.
It is the hand that gives genuinely that will be rewarded in many folds!
Remember to keep safe, wash your hands, keep to social distancing but most importantly stay home.
Lerato wa ha Serero…
( This is an Editorial Comment that appears on a weekly basis by Lerato Serero, Sedibeng Ster Editor)
