Loving South Africa doesn’t mean ignoring its problems. It means believing we deserve better and doing something about it. This election is an opportunity to turn frustration into action.
If you only have a minute, read this: South Africa may have lost R2.1 trillion to corruption and mismanagement over 30 years. That’s R8 million every hour. Imagine the schools, hospitals, jobs and infrastructure we could have had. We cannot change the past but we can shape the future. On the 4th of November, please vote. Not for a politician… but for the South Africa we deserve.
South Africa (01 November 2026) – What would you do if I gave you R8 million every hour? Like… every hour… for the next 30 years? That’s R191 million per day. Or R5,8 billion per month. Now think about this. What could South Africa do with that amount of money?
You see, that is one estimate of what corruption, fraud, state capture and financial mismanagement may have cost South Africa over the past 30 years, reported by IOL. I am not joking. South Africa has lost an estimated R2.1 trillion. Or if you’re a numbers guy… R2,100,000,000,000.
I can’t even comprehend that number. I mean, even R8 million an hour is incomprehensible. But that is the scale of what corruption and financial mismanagement may have cost us. And we thought it was just the firepools and money in the couches! How absolutely sif.
Bear with me here. We are about to digress. Hard.
South Africa has approximately 22,500 public schools. Thousands need urgent sanitation upgrades. Imagine what R1.3 billion, invested properly, could do for those children. JUST ONE WEEK’S WORTH OF STOLEN MONEY!!!!!
Our public hospitals are falling apart. They don’t have enough money for basic things like beds, or linen, or even water (for patients to drink). My friend had to go to a public hospital for cancer treatment and they could not give her water to drink her meds… which she still had to pay for. Ja, public hospitals aren’t free chommie. And they need more staff, desperately. We have the most incredible doctors and nurses. World-class. But there just isn’t enough money to pay them. Imagine what R1.3 billion in additional funding could do for our public hospitals. Every. Single. Week.
Joburg is currently facing a water crisis. Old pipes are bursting. Reservoirs are running low. Areas are off for days (some for weeks). And we are now in the era of “water-shedding”. We need a schedule. Stat. Eskom Se Push need to rebrand to SA Se Push. Come on guys. But what would it cost to fix our entire water system? Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has said we need R64 billion for water infrastructure. That’s less than one year’s equivalent of the estimated losses we’re discussing. Imagine the difference that investment could make to communities struggling without water! JUST IMAGINE!!!
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Even After a Year of Searching for Work, SA Job Seekers Still Choose to Remain HopefulSouth Africa’s expanded unemployment rate is around 44% (although I believe it to be far worse). Millions of people are desperate for work. If just one year’s worth of those estimated losses had been invested in a properly managed employment programme, it could theoretically have paid 583,000 people R10,000 per month for a full year. That’s more than half a million people earning a salary, supporting their families, spending money in their communities and contributing to the economy. Imagine what sustained investment in employment and small businesses could have achieved! Imagine how many families could have been lifted out of poverty? How many businesses could have grown? How many young South Africans could have been given a chance?
You clearly see where I am going with this.
South Africa is not a poor country when it comes to potential. We have incredible people, incredible resources, world-class talent and communities that show up for each other every single day.
I see it. I write about it. I celebrate it. It’s literally what I do for a living.
And I know what South Africans are capable of when we work together. But kindness cannot replace functioning infrastructure. And Ubuntu cannot repair a collapsed sewage system. Community spirit cannot keep the lights on when the electricity network fails. And ordinary South Africans should not constantly have to rescue a country that their taxes are supposed to help build.
For the last 3 decades, the ANC governed South Africa with a national majority. That comes with enormous responsibility for what happened during those years. But corruption is not exclusive to one political party and changing the government does not automatically change how it governs. Every political party deserves scrutiny. Every politician should be held accountable. And every rand of public money should be spent in the public interest.
Next week, we get to have our say.
I am not going to tell you who to vote for. Your vote is yours. Your beliefs are yours. Your choice is yours.
But PLEASE vote.
Vote for the municipality you want to live in. Vote for the streets you want your children to walk down. Vote for the water you want coming out of your taps. Vote for the schools, the clinics, the parks, the roads and the communities you believe we deserve. Vote for the elderly person who needs reliable public healthcare. Vote for the small-business owner trying to keep their doors open. Vote for the unemployed young person who desperately needs an opportunity.
And vote for yourself.
We deserve a country that works. We deserve a country where R8 million an hour is invested in our future, instead of being used as a measure of everything we’ve potentially lost.
And yes, we cannot change what happened. We will most probably never see that money again. We cannot give back every opportunity that was lost. We cannot undo every failure. But we can demand better for the next generation. And the generation after that.
I love this country. Deeply. I have seen strangers become family. Communities rebuild homes. Ordinary people perform miracles with almost nothing. South Africans continuously show up for each other in ways that still bring me to snot en trane. Now imagine what we could achieve if the people entrusted with our public money showed that same commitment to making this country better.
We have spent so many years talking about South Africa’s potential… I think it’s time we started living it.
Please, South Africa. On the 4th of November, go and vote.
Make your mark. Use your voice. This country deserves your hope. And more importantly, we deserve R8 million an hour that doesn’t “just” go missing.
*For more information about voting, please visit the IEC’s website.
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