You know what blows my mind?

You know what blows my mind? The CEO of Shoprite, Pieter Engelbrecht. Sorry if I'm saying the name wrong. He just got a raise, not a small one, a raise that took his total pay to 87 million this year. 87 million rand. Meanwhile, the same workers who wake up at 3:00 a.m. to open those stores, who travel two taxis deep from Kasi just to make it on time, are earning less than 4,000 a month bafethu. Let that sink in. One man ends in a single day what another ends in the entire year at the same company. And the board says he earned it because profits went up, because shareholders are happy, because we must pay competitive global rates. But here's the reality: those global rates don't match South African pain. You've got people who literally run the business, packing shelves, swiping groceries, smiling through exhaustion, and they're invisible in the success they build. Shoprite calls herself Africa's biggest retailer. But how do you celebrate that title when your workers are Africa's most underpaid? This isn't about envy, it's about ethics, because a system that rewards one man with 87 million while paying another 3,800 is not efficiency. That's extraction. We clap for profits, but we ignore the people carrying them. And that's how inequality hides right in front of us. You can't build a strong economy on the backs of tired people, bafethu. And maybe, just maybe, the real sign of success isn't how high your CEO climbs, but how far your workers rise with you.