There are days when I sit quietly and ask myself a question I never thought I would have to ask. How can someone work every day, do everything they were taught to do, and still find themselves fighting just to survive? It is a question I have carried with me for a long time because, despite everything I have done to build a better future, it often feels like life keeps finding new ways to pull me backwards.
Like many South Africans, I grew up believing that there was a simple formula for life. Study hard. Find a job. Work honestly. Pay your bills. Stay out of trouble. If you followed those steps, you would eventually build a stable life for yourself and your family. That belief kept me going for years because it gave me hope that hard work would eventually be rewarded.
Today, I am no longer convinced that life works that way.
Over the past few years, life has changed in ways I could never have imagined. I lost my sister, and that loss changed me forever. While driving to Gauteng to help prepare for her funeral, I was involved in a car accident. Thankfully, I survived, but the financial impact of that accident stayed with me long after the physical damage had been repaired. Like many people facing an unexpected crisis, I took out a loan believing it would help me recover. Instead, it became the beginning of a financial struggle that still follows me today.
I refused to believe that debt would define the rest of my life, so I looked for ways to create another income. I invested in machinery because I wanted to build a business. I wanted to work harder, earn more and create opportunities for my family. Instead, I was scammed. The money disappeared, but the repayments remained. That experience did not just leave me with financial loss. It left me questioning whether honest people are simply becoming easier targets.
Despite everything, I continued working. I continued believing that if I kept moving forward, something would eventually change. I poured my energy into building Hello Lelo, not because I wanted internet fame, but because I wanted to create something meaningful that could one day become another source of income. Every article represented time, research and effort. Every improvement to the website was another step towards a dream I refused to abandon.
Then my blog was hacked.
Years of work disappeared overnight. I spent months rebuilding it because I believed that giving up would only guarantee failure. Just as I began finding my rhythm again, my social media accounts were compromised. Once again, I found myself rebuilding something that had taken years to create.
There comes a point where you stop asking why one particular thing happened and begin asking why it always seems to happen. You start wondering whether some people are simply expected to carry more than others. You question whether all your effort is actually making a difference or whether you are simply running in place while life keeps moving the finish line.
What makes it even harder is watching the world around us.
Every day we hear about another scam. Another pensioner loses their life savings. Another family is tricked into handing over money they cannot afford to lose. Another small business closes its doors because costs continue to rise while customers have less to spend. Interest rates increase. Food prices increase. Electricity becomes more expensive. Fuel goes up again. For some people these are headlines on the evening news. For ordinary families, they are daily reminders that surviving is becoming more expensive than living.
Sometimes I wish every scammer, every fraudster, every person who profits from another person’s hardship, and every decision-maker who signs off another interest rate increase could sit with the people whose lives are changed by those decisions. I wish they could meet the families choosing between groceries and school uniforms. I wish they could meet the people lying awake at night wondering how they will pay rent at the end of the month. I wish they understood that behind every financial decision is a real person trying to hold their life together.
There are people like me who are not asking for luxury. We are not asking for wealth or extravagant lifestyles. We are simply asking for the opportunity to live with dignity. We want to work honestly and know that our income is enough to keep a roof over our heads. We want to provide for our children without constantly worrying about debt. We want to build businesses without becoming victims of scammers. We want to exist without feeling as though life is constantly waiting to knock us down again.
One question keeps returning to me. Does honesty still matter?
I ask that because I look around and see people making fortunes by lying, stealing and taking advantage of others. Corruption continues. Fraud continues. Scams continue. Meanwhile, the people trying to earn an honest living seem to carry the heaviest burdens.
The truth is, even if I wanted to become one of those people, I would not know where to begin. I do not know how to deceive someone. I do not know how to take another person’s hard-earned money. I do not know how to build my life on someone else’s suffering. That is simply not who I am, and it never will be.
Perhaps that is why all of this hurts so much. I still believe that honesty matters. I still believe that kindness matters. I still believe that integrity matters. What I struggle with is understanding why those values seem to come at such a high cost.
I am sharing this because I know my story is not unique. There are thousands of South Africans who wake up every morning, go to work, work honestly and still find themselves one emergency away from financial disaster. They are not lazy. They are not irresponsible. They are simply trying to survive in an economy that has become increasingly unforgiving.
If you are one of those people, I want you to know that I see you because I am living that reality too. I know what it feels like to keep rebuilding after every setback. I know what it feels like to question whether your hard work will ever be enough. Most of all, I know what it feels like to want nothing more than an ordinary life filled with peace, stability and the chance to breathe without carrying the weight of constant uncertainty.
Maybe that is what we should all be fighting for.
Not riches.
Not status.
Not perfection.
Just the chance to live honest lives without being punished for it.
