WILLIAM GUMEDE: Get personal about finance

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South Africa News News

Financial illiteracy in SA is a crisis that extends to our poor public finances

A lack of knowledge about the critical importance of personal finance is not only tripping up many South Africans; it is also one of the reasons for the country’s dire public finances.

In my years of teaching elected and public representatives how to manage public finances it has become clear that many of them have little understanding of how to manage their personal finances — making it almost impossible for them to manage public finances too.lected and public representatives are often tempted to take part in corruption to make ends meet because their poor personal financial management has led them into debt.

Furthermore, given the exclusion of previously marginalised South Africans from being active players in the market economy, many lacked the basic personal financial education that many of their white counterparts would have routinely picked up in homes from their parents. The failure by the democratic government to deliver public services such as education, health and policing have forced far too many people to look to the private sector.

The post-apartheid culture has also become strongly materialistic. New belief systems appear to have taken hold that place value, status and social belonging on material assets. For example, s Given the appalling levels of personal finance in this country, improving the understanding of this skill should take place in all life phases, by multiple institutions.

 

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