I wish someone had told me I ain’t going nowhere

I was chatting to a Zimbabwean guy the other day. He lived in South Africa for 15 years before heading back to his motherland in December last year. He was in Joburg for a visit.

“The way South Africa is going, I would rather be at home,” he said. “My family is there, I am lucky enough to have work, and living in South Africa is no better than living in Zim.”

That was a bit of an eye-opener. Living in South Africa is no better than living in Zimbabwe? The country that we see as a failed state with no hope?

The next day there was an article in the Financial Mail titled, “Has South Africa run out of time on the doomsday clock?” Not exactly negative, but also not especially optimistic. One of the most positive views expressed in the article is that we might pull ourselves out of the “downward spiral” and avoid a “sovereign debt crisis.”  

Another article in the same magazine spelled out “Why SA is no failed state”, setting out many reasons why we should be, and then a few reasons why we aren’t. (Yet.)

Reading about our country’s problems is upsetting, no matter how you frame the narrative. But it’s still my country, my home, and that’s never going to change.

A few years ago I got British citizenship. Now, when I get frustrated with living here, I start scanning the job market in the UK. Then I start thinking about what life would be like there. Within minutes I realise how lucky I am to be in South Africa. I have an amazing group of family and friends, the sun shines almost every day, I do interesting work with incredible people, I live in a nice house with a garden and a couple of dogs, I have a good doctor, dentist, optician, etc. to help me look after my health. Why would I give all that up to go and live in a mostly overcast, strange land where I hardly know anyone – even though the lights may be on all day?

In the past year or so we’ve lost three members of our book club to emigration, with another one set to leave in a few months. That’s four out of 12 people – or one person in three. Granted, none of their plans were to “escape” South Africa. Two are following great job offers and two have retired. But it’s lonely out there in the great, big world – as some have learned.

Others are deliriously happy in their new, foreign home towns… or, at least, they show their best lives on social media. But it’s not for me. I will put up with the negative stuff and focus on the good bits – the sunshine, the people, the social freedoms and, of course, the biltong.

By the way, BusinessLive (the online presence of Business Day and Financial Mail) is running special on subscriptions at the moment – R60 per month for the first six months, then R120 thereafter. So if you couldn’t access the links in this article, check out the subscription offer.