Magagula’s financial education crusade hailed in Dundee
Financial planning is key to efficient management of finances that will help avoid drowning in debt. This is the view of Nolwazi Memela, a government employee, from Sibongile Township in Dundee who attended a financial education summit held in Umzinyathi District today.
The summit is a revolving financial education campaign that led by the head of KZN Treasury, Simiso Magagula, in partnership with the Office of the Premier. Its objective is to educate millions of government employees who, in most cases, face the risk of indebtedness that renders susceptible to poor performance and lack of focus in the working environment.
Key focus areas include the ability to budget, choosing how you invest, knowing how to avoid getting into debt and getting out of debt as well as thinking about retirement.
Memela said although she is not too indebted herself, but she is convinced that this education is for everyone and will benefit more people in the current economic situation.
“Some people are already in trouble due to a string of debts. This education is an eye opener for me and for many people attending it. It should be run regularly and target all kinds of people because lack of knowledge to manage personal finances affects many people,” she said.
Magagula said it was understandable when employees get into debt when buying items such as property and other forms of assets, but it was important for employees to avoid spending unnecessarily on food, clothes and entertainment.
“The problem is that some people are financially ill-disciplined. That is what they must learn to deal with first. But for those that want to get out of debt, there are lessons they can learn from how our KZN government got out of debt. In 2008/2009, the province was in overdraft. We were paying R50 million annually to service R2.9 billion overdraft. We had to cut budgets and introduce cost cutting measures. While this is not a pleasant thing to do, but it had to be done for us to get out of debt. We are therefore saying getting out of debt is possible,” said Magagula.
The summits will continue to move to different districts in order to benefit everyone employee who either needs to avoid debt or to get out of it.
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