Surviving the Recession — Why This Recession Might Work Out for Us Young Working People in Cape Town

Tyrone Fisher
Sep 6, 2018 · 6 min read
City Centre Feature — Tyrone Fisher

It’s a Thursday night, I’ve been sick the whole week and yet I am writing. I have to be honest I have been writing about a lot of seriously talented creatives lately and for some reason, it has inspired me to keep creating what I can. So I am writing this week’s blog.

I am not sure if you saw this but it was announced this week that South Africa is officially in a recession. Firstly, don’t blame the new land expropriation act. Give the whole thing a read before going crazy. The country has been on the brink of recession for the last couple of years, a corrupt president, droughts in every major city over the last 3 years, intense racial tension and businessmen being found to have committed fraud. There has not been a lot of news that makes South Africa look like a great place to invest right now. So there are many reasons why South Africa is now in a recession and it is probably not the land expropriation issue. Now that you are probably offended let’s move on.

I want to write why the recession may not be a bad thing if you are a young working adult in Cape Town. Now, I am not saying that it will not negatively affect millions of lives in South Africa, because sadly it will. What I am saying though is that you can use the situation to your advantage.

What I have been doing over the last couple of months is keeping a serious eye on places to rent in the Greenpoint/Seapoint area, I have written about my plan with that before. In the last month, I have seen bachelor flats available in that area from R4950. An amount that people historically argued would be impossible. I mean there are still people on Facebook groups offering “a great room in a house share for R6500”. Quick tip, that is not a deal. It seems to be that rent and property prices are dropping at the moment. Interestingly, I just spent the weekend in De Kelders (Gansbaai), where we saw far too many properties for sale and many of them had apparently been on sale for a while. I mean I am not talking about buying, no one has money for that yet, but what I am saying is the property price across the Western Cape is probably going to be dropping over the next little while. Which if you have a job and are looking for a place in the province next year is probably going to be very helpful.

As you may know, I have been doing some freelancing over the last couple of months and I, fortunately, work for a British company. Which I have discovered is far more common than one would think. With freelancing one often earns in dollars, depending on the platform that you use. What this can mean is that with the recession there is a way to take advantage of the bad situation for your income. To survive in Cape Town a side hustle has always been mandatory but now that side hustle could potentially help us thrive.

I have been sick at home for the last week, so I may just be feeling hopeful because I’ve spent the last three days in bed but I genuinely think we can use the recession as young working individuals to our advantage. Here is some of what I am doing to try to take advantage of the recession:

  • Outsource yourself. I know outsourcing can be a dirty word, but we live in 2018 where if you have a computer and an internet connection you can make a lot of money online earning a foreign currency. The dollar is currently R15,32 and the pound is R19,82. Those are insane and slightly depressing but if you can find a way to sell your skills online you can earn that and convert into rands. Some of the skills that I know this can be done for are, web design, SEO, PPC, writing, accounting, various types of content creation, coding, translation and tons of other projects. There are tons of platforms to help with this but the two that I am getting into are Upwork and Freelancer.com. A lot of companies from other countries have offices in South Africa because it is cheaper labour for them, the advantage though is that while it is cheaper for them, we can often get paid more than we would have from a local company.
  • Constantly Upskill. A lot of the skills mentioned above can be self-taught. Alternatively, there are tons of easily accessible online tutorials that can help you teach yourself.
  • Keep an open eye. Keep your eye on job openings, keep your eye on rental openings and keep your eye on other opportunities. Even if you don’t take the opportunities you see, having the knowledge can help you understand what is happening in the industry and world around you. Following rent prices in Cape Town is an absolute must as we all know the pricing issue that exists in the city. Understanding the industry around you and rental prices can help you take advantage of that environment.

Those are some of the things that I am doing that I hope will help me take advantage of the economic crisis that we now find ourselves in. I think there are a couple of other advantages that may happen through the recession.

  • The semi-grating might turn into full migration. There is a joke that a lot of people of lighter complexion who move to Cape Town are semi-grating. With the recession, their negative opinion of South Africa may worsen and they may move out. Which in all honesty, I think is the best for everyone. If you live in South Africa but hate it and find yourself constantly complaining about it, should you really be here?
  • Property prices will drop. The big problem I think in South Africa, specifically in Cape Town is not that there is not enough property but that it is financially unattainable. The recession may help that situation.
  • Other profitable opportunities will arise. I remember hearing that Warren Buffet claims that that the best time to invest is when an economy is in a dip. I think that is wise. I have also seen that historically, recessions have had terrible consequences but they have also led to some great entrepreneurial ideas.
  • It will end. Like most things, this too will end. We were in a recession a couple of years ago and that ended. If we as South African’s truly invest in our country and its people we can be a part of ending the recession and improving the economy for all.

In writing this blog post I realise a couple of things. I am being incredibly optimistic and may be underplaying the negative impact that a recession will have. In truth, I think we all know how badly a recession impacts a nation and sadly that it is the poorest that suffer most. Why I wrote this post is because we all know that, what we need to be looking for are ways to take advantage of a bad situation to improve the future. Hopefully, this post helps us all with that.

I also realise that I may have offended you. I apologize about that, but I have certain views on things through having engaged in various discussions with various people. In addition to this, I really try to think my views through. So you are welcome to disagree as I encourage a bit of debate.

Finally, I am not an economics expert, so my predictions and thoughts may be off. I am writing from the perspective of someone who is very interested in Economics but has not studied in the field. I did post this on LinkedIn a couple of months ago though:

I didn’t quite predict a recession but still close enough.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade