BOARDROOM TAILS
ANN CROTTY: Queuing up just to survive
The sad reality of lining up on social grants pay-out day
It’s not quite 6am yet, it’s dark, and there’s an autumn chill in the air. Already a queue has formed around the Shoprite Mall at Gugulethu Square. Shoprite will open only at 9am, but before that the queuing process will have been formalised; everyone will have been given a number and will have been allowed into the mall to join another queue, and then another, as they make their slow way towards the social grant that shelters them from grinding poverty. Grant payment day at Gugulethu (and in malls across the country) is an exercise in queuing. Look closely and you will learn all you need to know about the time value of money. The majority of recipients have so little money they cannot afford the luxury of a R6.30 ATM withdrawal and are forced to expend huge amounts of time queuing to collect cash from a merchant’s till (at Shoprite, Pick n Pay or Spar). Those who can afford to buy a few groceries can join a queue that is also very long but moves slightly faster.One of the people in...
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