{"id":10956,"date":"2012-05-31T22:29:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T20:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/05\/feature-s-africans-live-for-the-now-ignore-calls-to-save\/"},"modified":"2012-05-31T22:29:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T20:29:12","slug":"feature-s-africans-live-for-the-now-ignore-calls-to-save","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/feature-s-africans-live-for-the-now-ignore-calls-to-save\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE-S.Africans live for the now, ignore calls to save"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Stella Mapenzauswa<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG<\/span> May 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Like many South Africans,<br \/>\nNkululeko Makhaya has only the most basic financial strategy for<br \/>\nhis future: a pension contribution deducted from his salary and<br \/>\n100 rand ($11.90) put aside each month towards family funeral<br \/>\ncover.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old admits this is woefully inadequate, but with<br \/>\nonly a modest salary and obligations to both his immediate and<br \/>\nextended family, there is barely enough each month to see him<br \/>\nthrough to the next paycheck, let alone save.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cue the future: what happens in 30 years when he is still<br \/>\nvery much alive but retired, and inflation has eaten into his<br \/>\npension?<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll get by somehow. Hopefully my children will have good<br \/>\njobs and take care of my wife and me in return for the good<br \/>\neducation I&#8217;m paying for now,&#8221; said Makhaya, a salesman for a<br \/>\nJohannesburg cleaning products firm.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I might not even live to retirement, in which case the<br \/>\nfuneral policy will come in handy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In fact, Makhaya is setting aside more than most people in<br \/>\nSouth Africa, where the majority of households are forced &#8211; or<br \/>\nchoose &#8211; to spend most of their income, and just keep their<br \/>\nfingers crossed about the proverbial rainy day.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The weak savings culture is a big headache for the<br \/>\ngovernment because it hampers speedy economic growth. With less<br \/>\ncash sloshing around its banking system, South Africa cannot<br \/>\nfinance the infrastructure such as roads, ports and broadband<br \/>\nInternet needed to move its economy up a gear.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tellingly, it fares poorly on both growth and savings when<br \/>\ncompared to peers in the BRICS bloc of developing countries.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Stella Mapenzauswa JOHANNESBURG May 31 (Reuters) &#8211; Like many South Africans, Nkululeko Makhaya has only the most basic financial strategy for his future: a pension contribution deducted from his salary and 100 rand ($11.90) put aside each month towards family funeral cover. The 35-year-old admits this is woefully inadequate, but with only a modest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}