There is a key demographic that we regularly take for granted but who have all the answers for navigating the tough times we find ourselves in. They are our senior South Africans and, as Gasant Abarder found last week, we can learn from their lived experience if we’re prepared to listen.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
For months, we listened to a pensioner telling us what to wear, what time to lock ourselves into our homes and to wash our hands. Don’t eat that roast chicken! Don’t buy those open-toe sandals! Don’t buy that pack of smokes!
And now that the dust has settled post COVID-19 lockdown – and we are living with the economic strife of those multitude of sacrifices, job losses and businesses going under – the pensioner, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has gone very quiet.
He needs to tell us the plan for navigating out of the energy crisis, joblessness and the high cost of living. The president did show up at the ANC elective conference in KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend to deliver the closing address and was roundly booed by members of his own party.
Perhaps the president will be feeling the dejection of not being heard the way seniors in our country experience that reality every day. Yet, they have so much to offer by means of wisdom and leadership.
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Last week, a group of seniors gave me a new appreciation for our elders. I was invited to speak to a group that calls itself the University of the Third Age or U3A about storytelling. They’re seniors from all walks of life who get together regularly to tackle the issues of the day. They travel from Sea Point, the southern suburbs and the Cape Flats to meet and they invite speakers. They have a writers’ club and a committee that arranges outings. But mostly, they have something to say and a lot to contribute.
It was a real privilege to speak to them. Before setting out for the brunch time talk at the Turfhall Community Hall, I thought I would get a few copies of my book, ‘Hack with a Grenade – an Editor’s Back Stories of SA News’, in case a few in the audience wanted a copy.
So, I set off for a book shop called Timbuktu in Sybrand Park on the Cape Flats where I had left a few copies to sell. It is one of the few book stores of its kind in the area and they make one helluva breakfast. To my dismay, I found the store had shut down – another victim of the COVID-19 lockdown and our economic downturn.
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I tried to call the owner but to no avail. A few kind folks on Twitter advised me that Timbuktu had moved to the Athlone CBD. But I didn’t find Timbuktu. Inside an Islamic school were a few boxes with books from Timbuktu in the corridor on the first floor of Church Street. As luck would have it, after the kind lady at the school allowed me to take a look, I found 11 copies of my book in the last box I scoured through.
So, I set off for my chat with U3A armed with 11 books. My intention was to give away one book and sell the other 10 copies for R100 each (I get the book for R150 per copy). But when I saw the profile of the audience I couldn’t sell it for that price and rather sold it for R50 a piece to recoup some costs. It sold out within seconds.
I reminded the seniors that like my book, they each had a story to tell. And if each of the 100 or so of them contributed a chapter to an anthology of stories there would be 10 new local books on the market. They were considered and thoughtful in their engagement with me and I promised to come back with more copies (at the same price! I’m not sure how I’m going to pull that off).
The breakfast chat made me realise that I have my own pensioner parents who live with my family and I have access to them all the time. They are also a wealth of information, knowledge and stories that I have taken for granted. Not anymore; from now on I will be listening intently and sipping the tea slowly as they drop their pearls of wisdom.
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Our seniors are a big part of our society and they have a significant contribution to make. Many of them know how to survive in these tough times. Our parents showed us just how they used to stretch a rand.
They may not have $4-million dollars in cash lying around the house but they can certainly enrich our lives in so many other ways if we’re prepared to listen.
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Picture: Gasant Abarder