Most middle-class income is used to maintain standards of living and pay debts, which can be very stressful between keeping houses and cars and children in good schools. And when that has been achieved, there’s very little time to be worried about solutions to unemployment, crime, inequality and corruption... which contributes to a lack of middle-class involvement in strikes and protests. This cannot be used as an excuse because the truth is that some just don’t care and are unlikely to be ‘active citizens’.

 

Many black middle-class people have extended families that they provide for and this leaves very little to invest in the economy.

This dynamic is illustrated by the e-toll saga, when headlines read "Middle class likely to foot the bill". South African taxpayers are expected to fund development, governance, administration, infrastructure and the social grant system. A great deal of taxpayers’ money is being mismanaged: approximately 51 million rand is lost to corruption every year.

 

This past year, taxpayers’ money was used to finance Eskom’s Build programme. Over 200 million rand was used to upgrade the President’s home in Nkandla. The same money is being used year after year to bail out South African Airways and they just keep on failing to turn it into profit. Countries like Zimbabwe are being lent money just so that they can allegedly use the same money to oppress our country by using it to help Julius Malema and his political party. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Politicians have been caught several times with their hand in the cookie jar but have not faced prosecution.

 

An estimated 2.3 million people in South Africa are taxpayers, out of the total of 52 million. A total of 15 million people rely on social grants, which are financed through tax. The recipients of social grants are increasing while employment is decreasing. This is clearly a recipe for disaster. The reality of the situation is outrageous. The rich get richer while the middle class keeps on fighting tooth and nail to keep up with their debts and lifestyles. What’s even more depressing are the poor people who constantly suffer at the bottom of this chain of inequality.

 

Not much has changed since the end of Apartheid. The people that South Africans citizens have elected to represent them in parliament focus more on their own needs than ours.