Money Matters: Thinking Out Loud

We live in a world where we are encouraged to voice our thoughts freely but they aren’t really welcomed even by those who encourage us to speak up.

Who are you, where you from (ingane kabana le *in Kenneth Nkosi’s voice*) is always a factor.  No-one is interested on what you gonna say if you don’t have a famous surname or you not in the showbiz or hold a prominent job.

What bugs me the most is seeing people who say Tamkhulu Rolihlahla Mandela is their role model and you don’t see an inch of Tamkhulu’s trait in them. We all know he embodied humility, love and respect for people regardless of their backgrounds.  So if you say to me he inspires you, I at least expect you to emulate ubuntu bakhe and fall short on the rest ke.

We are a materialistic generation that worships those who have already made it. Maybe we think it would rub off on us, shame!

I'm a bit confused or lost to be precise. It’s human nature to take what flatters you and leave inyani ikujongesweni than doing the right thing.

It’s more of show me what you've got before you speak. We are bullied into silence. It's like you are not expected to know right from wrong if you not financially stable. People tend to value those who have money more.

I'm a vocal being. You can't say something I disagree with and expect me shut up (unless the Holy Ghost tells me to) but I found myself withdrawing from pointless arguments and unhealthy debates especially when I see peeps are abusing their authority.

I wish I could just scream and tell people to grow up and treat human beings equally. Not based on the digit on people’s bank account nani nani. God the father created us in His image and likeness that’s enough for us to love, support and respect each other.

Anyway ibukukucinga nje apha kum!!!

Satisfied with What You Have?

Is there a part where we humans say we have enough like I have everything I need and I'm fine with what's on my plate?

Seemingly we emulate the giraffe in so many ways, you have a lot going for you but still you are eying what's not yours.

Take the Guptas for example they have everything money affords but still they want to control everything. Can't we be grateful for the little or  big that we have.

Elokshin yazi nawe there is this unneeded competition of always wanting to outshine your neighbour at all cost and forgetting on focusing on the most important free things in life.

I for one I try not to be trapped on this rat race and the desire of wanting more and more. A number of people live beyond their means even the credit bureau shem has forgotten their debts.  

I know ‘DO YOU’ has become a cliché but I think it’s the only way out really.

To me it makes sense to compete with yourself and strive to outdo your previous achievement and not measure your accomplishments with others.

Someone on facebook said something so profound - "jealous is when you count someone's blessings instead of yours" and I couldn't  have said it better !!

So man, don't lose your purpose lana emhlabeni by living someone's life and helping them realise their dreams by constantly reminding them by forever showing up with what they want or striving for.

Do I make sense?!

I was contemplating whether to post this as a note on facebook or lana so ja... I wrote this four or five months ago.

Face For What Vele?

It pains me that my sisters and brothers have decided to personify diseases and ungodly practices.

It’s okay to accept that an illness has made your body a host but don't make it yours. Ayinguwe tu kaloku!

It does not and shouldn't define who you are. Do not allow it to limit your abilities.

I was so proud when I saw a woman who has full blown aids wearing a sleeveless top and going about her day.

People tend to stigmatize certain diseases an act like only promiscuous people acquire them.

Andiyazi but we should move away from discriminating people based on what they have contracted. Umntu ngumntu  regardless of an opportunistic illness that made their body a victim.

For years I had asthma and needed to be oxygenated whenever the rainy season loomed. And it took a woman of God at Christian boarding school I attended to free me from 'my chronic illness.'

She asked if I had really accepted Christ if so then my family should testify by seeing Jesus the healer evident in my life.

Bear in mind when she said this, I couldn't breathe and needed my 'oxygen' desperately but her words haunted me and I took it to God in prayer.

Some believe, you can outgrow asthma but I believe it was the finished work of Calvary that healed me. It’s all about stretching your faith.

Doubtlessly I believe in awareness and taking the necessary precautions but we should not humanize diseases. And be okay with being called the face of ... And of ...

Don't brand yourself as the positive one. When you step into a room let's not see you as that woman living with HIV and Aids. You are more than that. You were created in the image and likeness of God. A virgin had to give birth for you to be here. Meaning the impossible had to be made possible for you and I.

Kwaye self-pity is never an option. Stay strong.

You must be wondering, why most of my titles have question marks nhe? Ingxaki I have questions than answers. That I cannot help!!!

Must I Go Nood To Be Heard?!

Maybe I am forever scarred by the brutality that french people shown to Sarah Baartman that I can't appreciate women who parade themselves for a good cause.

My question is do we need to strip naked to be heard? Perhaps I have missed the memo that said in order for women to be equal game players they need to go exotic.

We are people of great influence and every kid out there knows sex sells. If we conform to this, the next generation won't be spared in degrading themselves to secure their social standing.

Parading our bodies in this undignified manner makes us look like loose cannons. There are plenty of ways of retaliating against social ills.

It's good to think outside the box but we shouldn't be the ones perpetuating indecency.

I'm old fashioned. I know but I liked how women in the sixties picketed. They managed to get their voices heard without going all Delilah...

One Step At A Time/The Blessing

Ordinarily we expect parents to take care of the needs of their children and devote their time in making sure that they have everything they need but that is not the case with Masixole Gilana, at 23 life has hit him hard but through it all he stood his ground and persistent to make an honest living.

Masixole, originally from a small village few kilometres from Centane called Gqunqe joined hundreds of Eastern Capers in 2006 and headed to the Mother City.

The transition was not smooth and easy as he struggled to adjust to the fast paced city life.

Back in Gqunqe everyone knew who he was and didn't battle for his Aunt's business to be noticed as he often had to accompany his aunt who sold woven mats to pensioners.

He found himself immersed into this big city life but had to grow out of it quickly and find a way of making things work, "I enrolled at Mandela High School in Crossroads to do my grade ten and I was staying with my older sister  and brother so I decided to sell snacks to make ends meet and this continued throughout my high school years.

My teachers and classmates didn't expect me to pass because my attention was so divided, little did they know that I slept after 2 pm trying to catch up.

I truthfully enjoyed this, I had a timetable and I stuck by it.

I then worked as a cashier for Kentucky Fried Chicken for eleven months and when that period ended I applied to be a Stock Controller at Game Stores and I tirelessly worked there for five months but got bored and resigned. I was so used being my own boss.

I applied for a six month Business Management course at Cape Town College and in between classes and assignments I lived a double life as train vendor to support my studies and my basic needs.

                                                                                  Social Life
As busy as I am I still make time for friends and family. I love watching TV and going out with friends and I try to make time for them but I don't want to be like those guys at Ekasi that start their weekend on Thursdays and finish it off with a Phuza Monday.

Challeges & Hopes For His Business
I'm passionate about entrepreneurship and being my own boss though a small business has its own challeges. Like here there are many of us and I try to distinguish myself from the rest by selling fruit and snacks. So far I'm the only one doing that.

I'd make more money when I have a stand because being mobile means leaving some snacks though I don't want to sell andinayo.

Plans For The Future
I'm looking for a job because being a vendor now is challenging with Metro Rail chasing us and not wanting us to operate from their stations. Plus I'm not comfortable with the environment.

Masixole enrolled at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to study National Diploma in Entrepreneurship and funds his education, something his colleagues would see as a setback and a sign to give up and join oomahlalela elokshini.

Let's change this world by being the best we can be and remember tough times do not last but tough people do.

I hope you are blessed by his story as I am so shiya owakho umzila.

'South Africa's Youngest Billionaire'

Mandla Lamba/Facebook

The state broadcaster is popular for coping foreign content. We adopt their thingy  and add our Mzantsi flavor. Imbiza ivuthwe.

Mandla Lamba "a mining tycoon" with businesses manganese mines in Mzantsi, Zambia and Congo- Brazzaville, then 25 was arrested for fraud, theft and culpable homicide and he claimed businessman and ANC deputy president  Cyril Ramaphosa and his wife, Tshepo Motsepe were his mentors.

Mr Lamba's arrest left me with different questions racing my mind. I wanted to know more.

It takes some education-anyana to nail such scams. Not every millionaire wanna be can execute them & mayihlale injalo mbhem.

He came across as genuine cause he was handsome , smart and he used that on his advantaged and managed to fool a number of people.

I have not found closure on his case and it just disappeared from the limelight. We don't know what really happened and what forced him to stoop so low. He has not been convicted  yet.

He is a smart guy and I'm sure he knew his claims would attract unneeded attention but why? Getting a decent job is not easy but he appeared to be a smooth talker so that could have landed him one.

If he shifted his focus and energy into building a  proper business eventually he was gonna be a respectable somebody.

An investigation show past his conviction is what we need to see and it would draw a picture of what made him do it regardless of the risks involved.  Its not only for our benefit as it will sort of warn people who think of committing the same crime.

It's like exporting drugs thinking you are special - the detectors won't see through you. You've heard how tight foreign laws are and how merciless the judges have become.

Blaming unemployment and its first born child poverty does not justify the act. Greed, selfishness and lawlessness does not even begin to describe lengxingongo.

A show that will seek to establish the force behind this demon is needed. I'm calling it a demon because I do not believe normal people would be so naïve. I believe there is a force driving them.

Trevor Madondo/Facebook

Recently Trevor Madondo, a socialite and broadcaster was cleared from a similar scam. His business partner together with her banker boyfriend planned to defraud a well-known  bank of 7 million rand.

Madondo's name has been unfortunately been dragged to this fiasco. One can't easily shed this weight of your back.

Again an investigative show would give us a sneak preview of what drove Trevor's associates into committing this horrible crime.

The Crooked Generation

These days we have become proud of things we should be ashamed off.

You’d find school children doing shameful things in their school uniforms during school hours. Uqhweshe njani?

Teenagers strolling with their boyfriends and not respecting old people that is still taboo to black communities.

Young girls walking proudly with their ballooned stomachs and showing off their ‘premature’ babies(because their pelvises were not mature enough to hold babies)

Young girls chatting to friends about how good the weekend was and how they drank to death and not remembering how they left the club.

One time I had to hold my mouth and act like I didn’t hear a disturbing conversation between friends. "when are you having a baby or are you infertile? The girl could not answer and I so wanted to say something but I reminded myself its NONE OF MY BUSINESS.

The following year I saw that girl with a bloated tummy and wished I had said something to her friend.

In the early 2000's there was an insurance catalogue on Drum magazine. It was a mind map of an ultrasound scan of a baby and it pointed at different body parts and said something like this: these feet will one day need proper shoes and these eyes will need spectacles and the tiny hands expensive gadgets.

Young people seem like they don't consider this when 'trying' for a baby.

You'd think their poor living conditions at home would propel them to want better things in life but instead they don't see beyond their situations and continue to increase the natality rate.

I cannot tell you how to live your life but you know you cannot afford KFC or spoil yourself with your hard earned cash but you go on and bring an innocent baby to a life of poverty. Fori ntoni?

Sometimes I think we are not exposed to successful Kasi poeople who have been there and conquered Kasi temptations or the quick life.

We don't aspire to change the world like the youth of 1976 who staged several riots against apartheid and Bantu education.

"Ikapa sifike linje aluzutshintshwa sithi" does that mean we have to destroy our lives?

I am no body and I don't aim to judge anyone but to bring about change.

I want the black community to stop and ask ourselves where are we going? What are we teaching the next generation?

The mind your business thingy is not part of our culture(the way we do things)

We ought to care for one another!!!

Nota Bene: I'm not your enemy but a caring friend!

Siyabulela!