One of the commonly accepted standards to measure any society’s moral compass, or civility, is how it looks after its most vulnerable members.
From Nelson Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi, many of the world’s accepted leaders on social justice and human rights have all spoken about the need to protect those who are unable to protect themselves.
Countries considered the most egalitarian are the ones that are able to afford all its citizens the same rights and opportunities despite material circumstance. It is a principle or ideal that binds both the first and third world, both socialist and capitalist: the sense that we are all human, regardless of standing in society.
Which is why the news that broke in the Sunday Times newspaper this past weekend about a loan shark that is targeting financial aid students, should leave us all hanging our heads in shame.
Abongile Nghona, an intern at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), was found to be charging desperate students up to 45% interest on loans as small as R100, in instances where their monthly R1,740 stipends were late.
While this sort of business is an indicator of a society that is broken and ethically bankrupt, it also points to massive failures on the part of the state.
In the majority of cases, this money represents everything to young people who often leave dire situations at home, hoping that education in far-flung cities where they have nowhere to run to will change the course of their destinies.
Her business relies on her knowledge, as a newly graduated employee, of the plight of the poor students at her former university, as well as her access to the NSFAS system to verify whether the person seeking a loan is indeed a scheme beneficiary and therefore able to pay the money back.
Missed payments often solicit threats from her and, in some cases, repossession of crucial instruments such as laptops and phones.
Nghona’s business practices and tactics left one of her clients so desperate that she sought to end her life by violent means.
While this sort of business is an indicator of a society that is broken and ethically bankrupt, it also points to massive failures on the part of the state.
How is it that the late payment to students of NSFAS funds can be so rife and have gone on for so long that Nghona spotted an opportunity to exploit?
Together with the ever-growing problem of gambling addiction among students in tertiary education, it represents perhaps the most creative way our uncaring state is contributing to the destruction of the future.
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