Coming up on
3rd Degree:
Episode: Are We A Depressed Nation?
Broadcast date: 3 March 2009 at 21h30
Channel: e.tv
220 South Africans attempt suicide every day. With South Africa heading for recession, this figure could rise. So is there hope?
The finance minister has said that we are to some extent shielded from the international credit crisis, but this week 3rd Degree looks at ordinary South Africans facing the brunt of the credit crunch. Unable to pay mounting bills they are sinking deeper into debt and depression.
A mother and legal secretary from Germiston on the East Rand finds herself in a hopeless situation. Retrenched twice in less than two years, her bills began to escalate and her family go hungry. Both firms she worked at hit hard times when business stopped coming in.
She finally did get a job but was forced to take a huge pay cut. However, even with some income Carol is finding it impossible to put food on the table. About to be evicted and on the verge of suicide she desperately seeks hope.
Kevin Pennell and his wife Pier-Lynne are an average South African couple, trying to provide for their young family. Kevin decided to leave his job for greener pastures, but then discovered he had made a costly mistake.
Going from interview to interview, Kevin was told that he was over-qualified for the jobs on offer. The family find themselves sinking into debt; Pier-Lynne contemplates killing her whole family just to end all the misery.
Armed with a degree from Wits a young teacher from Soweto cannot find work. The breadwinner of his family, he becomes increasingly despondent, as the search for employment leads nowhere. Depressed and unable to see a way out he commits suicide.
As the cost of living increases and the economy slows down, more and more South Africans are finding debt strangling them. As their situation begins to spin out of control, they look frantically for a way out.
Tonight 3rd degree looks at the way out and the way forward by exploring solutions to these troubles.