Through my eyes

What a time to be alive.

For a lot of people life is not a joke and their every day struggles compound into a really miserable existence. On my life's journey I come across people who are truly struggling. People who are desperate and destitute, my heart bleeds for each and every person who feels the pain and sorrow. And who finds themselves needing the basics.

Having experienced some level of poverty and hardships, I can honestly say, I know the feeling!

With the global political and the economical instability, we are all feeling the tremendous imbalances. We see the great divide between the rich and the poor. Between the powerful and the powerless. Between the real and the fake. Between the honest and the dishonest and between the givers and the takers.

Lets not kid ourselves; it's a filthy place that we live in! And we are breathing this filth in wherever we go. Con artists have sprung out like weeds after a heavy rain and our ability to trust our instinct and to decipher a crook from a honourable have been diminished.

While we all want to do the right thing, because intrinsically we are all fine individuals, for most of us desperate times call for desperate measures.

Recently I spoke to a restaurant owner in Umhlanga who is fed up. Over the past couple of years restaurants have been forced to cut some of their profits to keep their doors open. With more and more restaurants opening and more shopping malls springing up, many are forced to keep their prices low to compete with the over inflated market, so imagine the frustration when they are faced with con artists who pretend that their food was tainted or that they never received what they orderedthis restaurant owner decided to fight back and has started a whatsapp for all the scamsters out there. Apparently there are plenty relatively normal individuals who go out to eat and get out of paying.

I have been told that there is a guy in Umhlanga who goes out with his family of five, eats drinks and enjoys himself, after a meal he pulls out a razor cuts himself and proceeds to leave without paying before anyone realises that he pulls this stunt regularly in different restaurants around town.

So if you are planning to pull a move next time you are dining; be very aware, you are being watched and recorded and the information is being distributed amongst the restaurants and you will be caught and charged.

Oh I have seen my fair share of fraudsters. They are right here living amongst us. I am sure each and every person reading this right now is dealing with some psychopathic, social piranhas who is/was/is trying to scam you.

Economic crime affects everyone. The financial impact on a company's fortunes is measurable and damaging; but this type of crime also affects employee morale, reputation, and relations with suppliers, customers and regulators, all of which can be harder to quantity but just as real. Given the lack of faith in law enforcement to deal with economic crime, the business community must protect itself. We must stand together and help one another wherever we can.