Placing the Poverty Blame

I am making an annual (sometimes biannual) tour of townships in South Africa. It occurred to me that people were markedly poorer this time round -- to the extent of there being more emaciated people, and malnourished children. I talked with several locals. My own thoughts were: world events. Putin in particular. But locals generally interpret it as people becoming less willing to work. In fact, I have heard no other interpretation.