The other day, while relieving my stress on the stoep, I heard someone asking another person for a R10.
Now hearing someone ask for money is common to me, I live opposite a superette.
But my first reaction to someone asking for double digits was to giggle to myself and at the beggar’s audacity. A few days later, at another shop, I heard someone else also ask another for a R10. And I giggled to myself again. I proceeded to order my middle cut hake and chips parcel and waited for the chips to finish in the fryer. As I stood there waiting I started thinking about how dramatically the price of a fish and chips parcel has gone up in less than a year and I remembered these men asking for R10 on the stoep of two separate shops. I realised just how badly the cost oof living has affected everyone.
I suddenly was overcome with a very deep feeling of sadness realising that some of us can’t even afford to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate. From my personal experiences, I have never had a problem giving someone that R2 change as I leave a shop. But then I started thinking about randomly giving someone an unplanned R10 and then how it would affect my ability to afford a loaf of bread the next day and it made me feel uncomfortable.
The fact of the matter is, life has become so expensive, who are we to judge those who are trying their luck at begging for more change? Many of these so called beggars used to have full-time jobs before the pandemic hit and now they have to do their best and put pride in their pocket to ask for a R10 to be able to afford something decent to eat.
In both these cases both people asking for money had their requests declined quite rudely. Yes, being asked for money isn’t always a pleasant experience, but we need to remind ourselves that life for those less fortunate than us has become even more expensive than what we are experiencing. I mean, a loaf of bread is already closer to R20. So basically that person asking for a R10 might just want to buy half a loaf of bread.
It’s easy to just say no and be oblivious to these people, but maybe we can be a little kinder and offer what little change we do have to spare.
We might think these people walking around asking for money and loitering outside of shops do it for the fun of it, but in more cases than you might think, it is the only way they can survive.
For those of us with full-time incomes and even double household incomes its easy to budget or restructure our budgets to survive these tough times, but what about the man and woman who has absolutely no income?
It’s easy to ask people why they aren’t working or to tell them they should go and look for work, but I mean, if the average Joe with a relevant education is struggling to find a suitable job, what gives you the right to judge those who don’t have higher qualifications?
I surely will be setting aside an extra R10 when I can afford to do so.
