Heritage Day: Why ubuntu should include financial resilience

Every year on Heritage Day, South Africans come together to honor the customs, cuisine, values, and tales that define them. Ubuntu is among the most enduring aspects of these traditions. It is embodied in how we support our families, strengthen our communities, and share our triumphs and tribulations. This collective care influences various facets of our lives, including our attitudes towards money.

For numerous South Africans, financial choices rarely occur in isolation. A paycheck frequently sustains multiple individuals, and a promotion can unlock prospects for an entire family. Often, financial prosperity is gauged not just by personal attainment, but by the capacity to enhance the lives of others. This perspective often ignites discussions about "Black tax."

However, focusing solely on this term may overlook a more profound truth: providing for family isn't merely a financial duty. For many, it symbolizes responsibility, appreciation, pride, and care. Ayanda Radebe, a Senior Product Specialist at OM Bank, emphasizes that we should not idealize the reality of such support. The burden of caring for parents, siblings, children, and extended relatives can inflict significant stress on working South Africans.

According to the Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor 2026, approximately 40% of working South Africans now belong to the so-called sandwich generation, juggling the needs of two generations simultaneously. Among working Gen Z South Africans, the figure rises to 43%. These are young individuals only a few years into their careers, already shouldering the burdens of two generations.

The objective should not be a society where more people bear this responsibility. True advancement is a society where fewer families rely on a single individual because every generation possesses greater access to opportunity, financial security, and economic involvement. Social mobility can yield one of the most potent outcomes: the ability to generate opportunities beyond a single generation.

While supporting family with immediate needs is crucial, long-term financial resilience stems from establishing avenues to self-sufficiency. This could entail investing in education, fostering saving habits, amassing emergency funds, or assisting loved ones in accessing financial instruments and services that enhance their financial well-being.

In this manner, financial aid transcends immediate assistance. It turns into an investment in the future.

Ubuntu does not entail sacrificing oneself to the point of financial hardship. In fact, sustainable support begins with safeguarding one's own financial future. Setting limits, strategizing ahead, and cultivating personal financial resilience are not signs of selfishness. They are what enable continued support for others over time.

Many South Africans struggle to strike this balance: staying devoted to family and community while also securing financial stability for themselves and future generations. This is where astute money management finds its meaning. You don’t have to allocate less to the people who matter. Yet, you can provide in a way that doesn’t inadvertently undermine your own progress, preventing the very support you offer today from becoming a crisis you seek assistance with tomorrow.

Modern banking has a crucial role to play in this narrative. A seemingly straightforward capability—such as sending money to a parent or sibling instantly, without a transfer fee draining an already tight budget—can transform the arithmetic of family support. That is the role a bank should assume: not as the hero, but as the co-pilot. The individuals executing the giving, saving, and sacrificing are the ones standing by their families.

As we commemorate Heritage Day, perhaps the discourse should shift beyond Black tax and concentrate instead on the values that sustain it. Ubuntu remains one of South Africa's greatest strengths. It reminds us that success is frequently shared and that communities flourish when people support one another. Radebe concludes that the ultimate measure of progress is not how many people carry others financially.

Instead, it is how many families attain financial resilience, enabling them to stand together on stronger foundations. That is the future Ubuntu should help us build: a world where caring for one another remains a defining value, and where each generation has a greater opportunity to achieve financial independence and prosperity.