The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Today is Friday, September 22nd, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga.
Why South Africa Needs Savers
According to Business Tech in May 2023, South Africa saves at a shockingly low level compared to its market peers.
You can determine savings rates by subtracting the consumption costs from your income and then dividing it again by your income. For example, if you make R10,000 a month and spend R9,000 that month, your savings rate is 10%.
Countries like Brazil, South Korea, the United States, the Eurozone, and India all have savings rates above 10%. South Africa’s savings rate is 1%.
The reasons for this are many. South Africa’s employment rate is notoriously high. Other causes include crime, Eskom’s rolling blackouts, the country’s junk status since 2017 and the governments draconian pandemic measures.
Things have become so bad that Capitec bank recently made over 900 changes to its credit policies because of the risks they face of unpaid loans. Proverbs 22:7 is true. The borrower is slave to the lender.
But more complex, moral, and personal reasons exist for a lack of savings among South Africans. Sometimes there are no savings because there is no income. But other times there are no savings because there is no self-control. There is a difference between poor savings due to a lack of means and poor savings because of faulty savings habits.
This is why financial literacy is so important. Schools should educate their students about overdrafts and the difference between credit versus debit. Fathers should teach their children how to open bank accounts and how to make an investment return. And yes, even churches play a role in warning their flock about the dangers of gratuitous consumption, living beyond one’s means and the starry-eyed attraction to the next sparkly toy. As the saying goes, money can’t fix bad spending habits.
The Bible has much to say about the priority of saving over spending. Scripture warns against consumerism. Proverbs 21:20 says: “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.” The wise man saves for the future, as the ant prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest (Pr. 6:8).
Today, it is popular for nations to rack up trillions of dollars in debt, leaving the tab with the next generation. They say “Relax, eat, drink and be merry…I’ll be dead when the bill is due.”
It is also common in some cultures for parents to spend foolishly in their youth and then expect their children to support them financially in their twilight years. But Scripture does not encourage nations or parents in this selfish endeavor.
Proverbs 13:22 says that “a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” Psalm 17:14 teaches that godly parents leave an abundance for their infants. Nations, as well as mom and dad, should labor and save so that the next generation may have it better than they did. The “prodigal son” is a byword for foolishness because he looked only to the pleasures of that moment.
For societies and families to succeed, they must remember that many of the greatest nations in history rose to prosperity through the Protestant work ethic, an emphasis on thrift and the evasion of spending money extravagantly.
One final point. Frugal people are savers but savers aren’t misers. Savers actually give at a higher rate than lavish spenders because they’ve learned to emphasize the needs of others over their own. God loves a cheerful giver, the Apostle Paul said. But you can’t give what you don’t have, and you’ll rarely have if you don’t save. So save with the future in mind and find rewards for both yourself and others.
And that’s it for The Africa Review in Five on this Friday, September 22nd in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe to the Missionary Minds podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I’m Yamikani Katunga. Be not weary in well-doing.