INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
Patrice Motsepe led the way pledging to give away to the poor half the money generated by his assets.
Durban – There is a wonderful story of a very poor girl growing up in the US Midwest who had great aspirations to be rich and when this ambition came true, she had to battle to find her space and be respected by Denver society.
A movie was made about her life titled, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and today her house still stands at the corner of Humboldt Street. I recall walking through the neighbourhood as a student and thinking often of her rags-to-riches story.
Now as I find myself in South Africa in a new world of open opportunity for wealth creation, I ponder on some similarities in the fate of Molly Brown and that of our new class of entrepreneurs.
Like Brown, who was famous for big parties, our elite are no different. Nouveau riche South Africans seem to need to throw lavish parties or host hundreds of guests to weddings and birthday bashes filling social columns with their excesses.
Recently, it was reported that the Guptas were going to spend R5 million on their niece’s wedding and then, as if to appease their conscience, they are planning to feed hundreds of children. Vivian Reddy at his 60th birthday bash fed street children with birthday cake and soft drinks.
The Mpisanes (Shauwn and Sibusiso) flaunt their wealth without a care in the world at their extravagant parties, and a fleet of luxury cars in the midst of a province that is the epicentre of poverty and HIV/Aids.
Rich people are not all the same. There are the self-indulgent nouveau riche and the old rich who appear to be more socially conscious and discreet about their wealth.
The former are first-generation arrivals who need to display their wealth as a sign of their success. They are usually on a steep learning social mobility curve. In one short generation, they feel compelled to cover up their humble origins.
In a desperate race, they usually start with the best private schools for their children – schools that are invariably white and elitist.
Then they head for branded clothing and apparel, holidays at famous resorts, dabble in investment art and real estate, create the illusion that they’ve had antiques all their lives and have their homes furnished by the best interior decorators.
Then their food portions get smaller and more delicate as haute cuisine is followed by nouvelle cuisine giving rise to a generation of international sushi lovers.
In direct contrast, old money is discreet and parsimonious with little personal indulgence but the rewards are quite different.
Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world, is well known and can afford to be himself.
Essentially, he remains ordinary but with a great sense of humour. He still lives in the same house he bought in 1958 valued at about R7m and has pledged to give away about 85 percent of his wealth over time to the Bill Gates Foundation and other family charities.
But perhaps the richest man in the entire world with not a penny to his name was Mahatma Gandhi whose wealth lay in his service and who sought a legacy richer than money.
Herein, lies the essence of true philanthropy which may be defined as the generosity of spirit, of will, of cash and kind towards the upliftment and betterment of our fellow beings on Earth.
The world as we know it may be described variously as the period of shrinking time, storm and stress, domestic genocide and violence.
But poverty is by far the single most important factor from which all other problems emerge. In polarities, lie the irreconcilable contrasts between the rich and poor, the super healthy and the dying sick, the well fed and nurtured children and their hungry, physically abused and mentally deprived counterparts.
Parallels in the global scene are to be found at our doorstep. South Africa has one of the highest Gini-coefficients in the world – a measurement of the gap between rich and poor in a society.
In KwaZulu-Natal, where 50 percent of people are unemployed, poverty is the order of the day. It is ultimately a moral and political judgement as to how much effort should be made to bridge the gulf between the indulgent rich and the starving masses, which still overlaps largely with race.
It is, however, a dilemma that no sensible government wishing to maintain its power can afford to ignore. Invariably, revolutions grow out of bread-and-butter issues.
Images of our president building his multimillion-rand family estate in Nkandla and embarking on peace initiatives in the CAR over the heads of crying, dying babies in a shocking health system does not augur well for a healthy democracy.
Those in the government should set an example.
Our lifestyles should be tempered with a sensitivity that narrows the gap between expectation and reality lest revolution of the masses becomes the only alternative.
It is little wonder, therefore, that Bill Gates flew quietly into our country recently to have a meeting with our wealthy black entrepreneurs to entice them towards philanthropic activities.
In quick response, Patrice Motsepe led the way pledging to give away to the poor half the money generated by his assets.
The Motsepe foundation over the past decade is reported to have embarked on a wide range of educational projects.
In doing so, he has become a true leader of a new movement towards African philanthropy.
When we as South Africans can gather together regardless of race in generating projects towards poverty alleviation despite the government’s ineffectual leadership, we can make a difference.
* Dr Devi Rajab is a psychologist, academic and author.
The Mercury
