Some people got no money at all. This song reminds me of the country, South Africa. The track No Money at All is by Brendan Croker & the 5 O’Clock Shadows.
There are millions of people in the country without money. Millions upon millions of people. You hear people on radio shows talking about having no money or little money, and it is the same story on social media. Everyone seems to have no money at all, whatever day of the week it is and whatever time of day.

The only people who have money in these hard times are those born with a golden or silver spoon in their mouth—those who have inherited properties and are raking in large sums from rentals, or those who were financed by parents and others to enter the medical, legal, and engineering professions. These are the individuals making the big bucks.
The others are the hustlers. They are hustling, but let’s not be disparaging, because among the hustlers are the pure entrepreneurs. These are people who will find a way to earn a living, get a better job, or secure a house. But then you get the true entrepreneur—not a person who is just opportunistic, cunning, or sly. The genuine entrepreneur starts a business, grows it, fails, picks themselves up, and carries on again.

With this in mind, we look at the latest GDP figures. I do not understand how Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) puts out numbers like these. It makes no sense. There has been no meaningful growth in the economy. The economy has failed to breach a 2% growth ceiling for roughly a decade, except for a temporary post-pandemic bounce. You can look at the data for yourselves to see reality.
The missing piece of the puzzle is clear: no one is running the country to generate economic growth. Instead, it is about self-enrichment. Political figures from across the spectrum milk the system to fund lifestyles in elite suburbs and luxury hotels, while the country degrades.
Consider it this way: if you were to construct a building without any blueprint or oversight, the result would be chaos, a mess, and eventually rubble. When you start anything—whether a building or an engineering design—you need a plan. There has never been a coherent economic plan in the country under this current regime over the past 30 years.

The government issues statements about economic growth, attracting investors, and reindustrialization, but the reality is the opposite. They are the ones who have overseen deindustrialization. Walk down any local supermarket aisle and check the labels. Your Heinz tomato sauce comes from Egypt. Look at Nestlé infant foods and cereals like Cerelac, or Maggi seasonings—all produced in Egyptian facilities for sale in South Africa. Unilever manufactures laundry powders and personal care items there, and PepsiCo produces snacks there.

Egypt has become the second largest industrialized country on the continent. Manufacturing business is shifting there because the environment is stable, predictable, and free from the punitive regulations and structural constraints that exist in this country to enrich an elite.

So here are the numbers from Stats SA for the first quarter of 2026. Take them for what they are worth. In a high-stakes game, one never knows how data is handled.

The Q1 2026 GDP Numbers

For the first quarter of 2026 (January–March), real GDP moved by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter. Year-on-year, the economy expanded by 1.9% compared to Q1 of the previous year.

• Sector Drivers: The finance, real estate, and business services sector grew by 0.9%, adding 0.2 percentage points to the headline figure. Agriculture recorded a 3.9% change, while transport and trade also recorded gains.
• Sector Declines: Manufacturing contracted by 0.8%, marking its second consecutive quarterly decline. Gross fixed capital formation (investment) decreased by 1.1%.

Historical Context: Annual Growth Rates

The performance over the last decade shows a consistent baseline. The table below outlines the annual real GDP growth rates for the country: Year Annual GDP Growth Rate (%) 2026 (Est.) ~1.4% 2025 1.1% 2024 0.5% 2023 0.7% 2022 1.9% 2021 4.9% (Post-COVID recovery)2020 -6.2% (COVID-19 contraction)2019 0.3% 2018 1.6% 2017 1.2% 2016 0.7% 2015 1.3% 2014 1.4%

The Long-Term Trend: Excluding the 2020 decline and the subsequent 2021 rebound, the average annual growth rate for this period is below 1.2%. Given that the population expansion rate is approximately 1.5% per year, economic output per capita has declined over the majority of the past ten years.

So there we are. Those are the numbers. And it just goes on and on like this year after year. The country is broken. Even if these numbers are massaged, they still tell a very worrying story. It is doubtful that this will ever end—not with the kind of people in power now.
The lyrics in that song end in the following way, and it makes one wonder whether the same fate awaits this country:

And when I am dead and gone
Someone else will be singing a song
And it goes
Some people got no money at all

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