Letter - During last month’s violent storm that hit Durban and surrounding areas, many families lost everything and life has now become a living hell for them.
In their hour of need, where are those who flaunt their riches in public?
Just a few weeks ago, a businessman splurged millions of rand to celebrate a spouse’s birthday and bought her a new Aston Martin car costing nearly R5 million as a present.
He was not shy about it. He ensured that everyone knew about his wife’s birthday “jol” by ensuring it received maximum media coverage.
The amount of money spent on his wife’s birthday can only be described as obscene and vulgar.
As for another businessman, he has so much money he doesn’t know what to do with it.
According to a recently published book, the person allegedly paid President Jacob Zuma for a period R1 million a month for doing absolutely nothing.
What is it with these rich and wealthy people? How do they sleep at night? Don’t they have a conscience?
It would have been so much better if they had used some of their money and helped the flood victims.
This would have elicited so much goodwill and their kind gesture and generosity would have been remembered for years.
While I am not aware of the contributions made by people of this calibre and I presume they do a fair amount for charity, that fades into insignificance when compared to the way they parade their wealth in public. Charity is a cornerstone of all religions and if their donations are made to uplift the destitute and given the necessary publicity if that is what they want, it will endear them to many people, rather than attracting scorn that is heaped on them.
It is not envy that prompts me to raise these issues but the plight of the poor masses.
What this world lacks are people like the ML Sultans, who made their wealth available to education and the Mother Theresas, who sacrificed everything for the benefit of the poor.