wealth rich car

South Africa’s rich and famous are going out of their way to flaunt their money, cars and lifestyles. Images via Twitter/Instagram: @Tshilamulela Thabelo Iven/@casspernyovest/@@yanda.wood

Cars, clubs, & clout: Are materialistic aspirations in SA the real pandemic?

Konka Kids, Pupils with Porches and flashy celebrities: Are South Africans overly obsessed with material wealth and not overall wellness?

wealth rich car

South Africa’s rich and famous are going out of their way to flaunt their money, cars and lifestyles. Images via Twitter/Instagram: @Tshilamulela Thabelo Iven/@casspernyovest/@@yanda.wood

Over the last few months, South Africans went out of their ways to show and shine with their pricey lifestyles and extravagant purchases. Timelines have been bombarded by learners showing off their flashy cars, celebs bragging about owning McLarens, and Bentleys and people showering Rolex watches with champagne.

All of this while local clubs compete over who offers the most expensive drinks and entertainment.

Anything and EVERYTHING for clout

Just yesterday a short clip went viral of a bunch of primary school children pretending to be ballers, slay queens, and bottle girls at South Africa’s famous Konka.

As expected, many South Africans shared their thoughts about the video. Surprisingly, a lot of them dismissed the children’s shocking re-enactment of the club scene as all fun and games.

Others, however, were genuinely concerned that even the little ones have now been left with the impression that spending money on expensive cars and alcohol is the real goal in life.

ALSO READ: Big tippers leave Mzansi looking for jobs in flashy nightclubs

Cars and clubs: Where exactly did it all start?

A quick scroll through social media reveals that not only celebrities – but even people who can afford to – have basically been shoving their lifestyles into everyone’s faces.

Last year, Cassper Nyovest made headlines after claiming to be the only one with a McLaren. Shortly after that, one of South Africa’s flashiest social media personalities Andile Mpisane also shared a clip of his McLaren.

While all of this was happening, a young girl headed to Instagram to share how she was heading to her first day of school in a lush Porsche coupled with an R50k designer “book bag.”

That’s not all, a Pretoria lifestyle club also went viral after one patron spent over R1 million on expensive champagne. In the same week, clubgoers were seen showering R200 notes with champagne.

Somizi also wanted to show off his riches with a post about his and his Bentleys and local parents wowed South Africans after they purchased pricey BMWs for their sons who just passed matric.

Image via Instagram: @BMWmenlyn

Wealth or wellness: Are we Brainwashed or simply motivated?

With all of these posts, it isn’t very hard to see that South Africans are obsessed with lavish lifestyles and hefty price tags. It’s no wonder young children are pretending to be clubgoers and not scientists and doctors.

While one cannot argue that the children did not do an excellent job at presenting things as they are, is this really what we want our children to be looking at and thinking about?

“You know society is messed up once we find humor in kids reenacting things which happen in clubs at school. Instead of cute science experiments or selling lemonade for their pocket money and saving tips, they are recreating konka videos. A sad, messed up society,” wrote molebatsi_nemo after seeing the clip.

Who cares anyway?

Despite outrage surrounding the clip, many South Africans have seemingly adopted a “to each their own” mindset.

And this means that unless enough people start taking issue with the kind of content going online and people’s reactions to the content, we will be left with a generation of people who only ever want to be “rich” so that they can brag about it to the world.

And sure, there’s nothing wrong about aspiring to have vast wealth, but, there are more important things than getting millions of likes because you own an R5 million car.

Especially while many people around the world still struggle with basic needs such as food and water.

ALSO READ: Konka Soweto: Inside Gauteng’s hot ‘millionaire’s playground’ [photos]