By Cowhan Govender, Group Head of Personal Banking at Standard Bank Personal and Private Banking
For years, a familiar narrative has shaped how we understand South African consumers: they are over-indebted, under-saving, and prone to conspicuous consumption. It is a narrative reinforced by statistics, the low household savings rate, rising unsecured lending, and high levels of personal debt. On the surface, the conclusion seems obvious. But it is also incomplete.
To truly understand financial behaviour in South Africa, one must move beyond spreadsheets and into lived realities in rural villages, townships, and informal settlements. There, a very different story unfolds. It is a story not of reckless consumption, but of aspiration, resilience, and, in many cases, investment under constraint.
Drive through parts of the Eastern Cape, or into KwaZulu-Natal, and you will encounter a striking visual contradiction to the “dissaving” narrative: large, modern brick-and-mortar homes rising from modest surroundings. These are not anomalies. They are increasingly common symbols of progress built not through inherited wealth or traditional mortgage finance, but often through years of incremental investment funded by unsecured credit.
And here lies the uncomfortable question: why do we label this as consumption?
A home funded by a mortgage is seen as an asset, yet the same outcome via unsecured credit is dismissed as imprudence. This reveals a structural bias that privileges people with collateral. For millions without it or stable incomes, unsecured credit is not excess but a necessity.
Finscope estimates that South Africa has 3 million micro businesses generating R5 trillion in turnover and sustaining 13 million jobs. Many people operating in this economy don’t have formal financial records or collateralisable assets. For these groups, unsecured credit can fund transformation. It helps start businesses and build homes. It enables education and supports the purchase of vehicles that act as lifelines, allowing people to access work opportunities, arrive on time, and maintain employment.
The savings invisible to the financial sector
The same misreading applies to how we measure savings. South Africa is often labelled a nation of “dissavers,” yet this view relies heavily on formal financial data and overlooks a deeply embedded culture of collective saving outside traditional systems.
Stokvels are rapidly growing, with over 11 million South Africans contributing more than R50 billion annually, excluding informal family and community schemes. Yet many savers remain invisible in formal data because contributions are pooled under a single account, masking strong collective saving behaviour. This is not a failure to save, but a different model of saving.
Similarly, traditional metrics overlook spending patterns in which households invest in homes, education, and small businesses, thereby building long-term value. This highlights that not all savings are visible, and not all consumption is wasteful. In fact, many South Africans who appear over-indebted are using shorter-term, unsecured credit as a purposeful tool for investment rather than excess. They may, in reality, carry smaller total debt burdens than those with access to secured finance.
The issue is not poor saving or non-investment, but outdated frameworks that overlook informality, access barriers, and cultural practices. This leads to flawed conclusions. For many South Africans, financial progress is often non-linear. It does not begin with savings accounts and end with asset accumulation. Improving inclusion requires redefining saving, rethinking credit assessment, and developing solutions that bridge unsecured lending with long-term asset building.
At Standard Bank, this perspective drives our commitment to driving inclusive growth in Africa, rooted in real-world contexts. Challenging “conspicuous consumption” means recognising intent, context and outcomes because the real issue is not how South Africans spend or save, but whether we truly understand them.
This content is sponsored, written, and produced by Standard Bank.
