South Africa faces a number of economic and healthcare challenges but as a business owner or decision-maker inside of an organisation, you can no longer ignore the mental health crisis and how it is in impacting your business on multiple levels. 

Dr. Frank Magwegwe, corporate wellness executive at Sanlam recently put the figure at R200bn per year through people missing work, presenteeism and other societal issues. This is further supported by research recently released by the Bureau of Market Research which shows that South Africans are the most unhappy they have been since the organisation launched its “Happiness Index” in 2012. 

If you as a business owner believe that your staff are your greatest asset, then you should be looking at these figures and working out how this is feeding into your bottom line. 

“Consider for a moment that the average South African does not do 14 minutes a day of exercises, we have some of the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the world and we live in a country of elevated crime and record unemployment, these various stress points are impacting your staff on a daily basis” says Kelsey Rod, Healthcare Ambassador for Rosebank-based Corporate Wellness business Dynamic Body Technology. 

While many businesses are aware of the stress faced by their workforce, business executives and entrepreneurs are still re-building confidence in a post COVID-19 lockdown environment which is compounded by low economic growth in South Africa. 

Marc Ashton is a former financial journalist and founder of Access-To-Market consulting firm Decusatio says: “As a business owner, I completely understand the challenges that businesses face when they see costs associated with investing in the mental and physical health of their staff but at the same time your staff are the people who are talking to your clients, managing your finances and developing your new products – if you are not investing in them, your organisation will struggle to grow.” 

Rod and Ashton highlight the following as further evidence that South Africa is sleep-walking into a healthcare crisis that will spill-over into a business crisis: 

The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) has seen sharp increase in calls to its Suicide Helpline which is averaging over 2200 calls per dayResearch in Europe conducted across multiple industries found that in 30% and 58% of incidents of absenteeism, poor productivity and poor decision-making could be directly linked to mental health issuesWhile the economy is recovering to pre-lockdown levels, many South African consumers are struggling with rising interest rates and inflation while salary growth remains stagnant Incidents of internal fraud are also on the up in South Africa and part of this can be linked to poor financial positions of employees

The relationship between health and wealth

If the topic of the relationship between personal health and wealth is something which interests you, then the teams from Decusatio and Dynamic Body Technology invite you to join them at The Money Summit (Leaderex) on 15 September 2022. 

This event will bring together wealth managers, healthcare experts and entrepreneurs who will discuss why it is important to prioritise your physical health in the pursuit of financial success. 

Should you be interested in attending this event, please e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information. 

About Decusatio
Founded by former financial journalist Marc Ashton, Decusatio is a South African consulting firm working with entrepreneurs to tackle the twin challenges of Access To Finance and Access To Market. 

About Dynamic Body Technology
Dynamic Body Technology is a Rosebank-based health and wellness business focused on assisting organisations to invest in their staff to deliver optimal performance and innovation. 

For further information: Marc Ashton
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.