Time to give SA, our troubled country, a fresh start

Spare a thought for the millions of  "our people" who have never had a chance at employment. When you find employment,  you stand a chance for the very first time to start building your pension fund, in preparation for retirement, which, according to the laws of this country, takes place at age 65.

Most of us who are retired today started work in our early twenties, and when we retired at 65, we had been in employment for over forty years, giving us a reasonably good pension amount, which means the fewer years you work, the less your pension will be.

So, all those school leavers who have struggled for years to find work are destined for a very limited amount of pension funds if they eventually do find work in their thirties, unfortunately the older you become, the more difficult it becomes to find work and you are doomed to a life of poverty from which you will only be saved when you reach the age that qualifies you for an old age grant.

A very sad future awaits millions of our youth born into our democracy. Only some of those who have joined politics will escape poverty as they are assured of a monthly salary as parliamentarians, who keep you in a prolonged ongoing poverty, while assuring you that they are fighting for your liberation from colonialism: before you know it, your productive years of your life are over and you join the old unemployable with dire effects.

This week, and all the developments that are taking place between SA and the US should be an eye opener that brings a new dawn to the people of South Africa, grab the opportunity with both hands, and run with it, and never look back: any transformation that brings positive change is good and should be celebrated, but if it has negative results, then there is no point in pursuing it.

You live only once; make the best of it.

Cometh Dube-Makholwa

Midrand.