Is it really that bad in SA?

After my wife died several years ago, my two sons, who had recently finished their schooling in Joburg, sort of went off the tracks and got involved with a few Joburg wasters. They were drinking a lot and I suspect they were also into a few "illegal substances". I know they enjoyed the odd zol .. one of my sons was a musician in a Jhb band ... Nuff said.

I offered them one way tickets to the UK (I had ensured they both had UK passports from an early age ... I was born in UK and have always had dual nationality, RSA & UK ... my sons have the same benefit)

They both now live & work in Dublin, Ireland, and have good jobs. Between them and their respective spouses, they have 4 kids (my 4 x granddaughters:love:).

If they ever said to me that they wanted to return to SA to live, I would do my utmost to convince them to stay the hell out of Africa. Do I miss my sons and my grandkids? :cry: Definitely. But I sleep easy at night in SA knowing that I have done the best for my offspring, and therefore for their own children, and future generations.
 
atomcrusher said:
After my wife died several years ago, my two sons, who had recently finished their schooling in Joburg, sort of went off the tracks and got involved with a few Joburg wasters. They were drinking a lot and I suspect they were also into a few "illegal substances". I know they enjoyed the odd zol .. one of my sons was a musician in a Jhb band ... Nuff said.

I offered them one way tickets to the UK (I had ensured they both had UK passports from an early age ... I was born in UK and have always had dual nationality, RSA & UK ... my sons have the same benefit)

They both now live & work in Dublin, Ireland, and have good jobs. Between them and their respective spouses, they have 4 kids (my 4 x granddaughters:love:).

If they ever said to me that they wanted to return to SA to live, I would do my utmost to convince them to stay the hell out of Africa. Do I miss my sons and my grandkids? :cry: Definitely. But I sleep easy at night in SA knowing that I have done the best for my offspring, and therefore for their own children, and future generations.
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Why not join them?
 
OrbitalDawn said:
And I simply don't see much of a silver lining for SA at the moment, economically or politically. So yes, we're experiencing an economic downturn along with the rest of the developing world, but our government isn't particularly interested in addressing it, and there's no real reason to think they will be any time soon.
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do you know of other governments that are addressing the economic downturn? the reason why central banks are always in the news is because global governments are actually doing nothing to address the downturn.
 
saturnz said:
do you know of other governments that are addressing the economic downturn? the reason why central banks are always in the news is because global governments are actually doing nothing to address the downturn.
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The point I was trying to make there was that sometimes the South African economy is simply reacting to global movements, but that our government's actions are exacerbating the problems.
 
Well didn't notice much difference on the ground compared to a year ago or two years ago.

...except the drought. My goodness...
 
OrbitalDawn said:
The point I was trying to make there was that sometimes the South African economy is simply reacting to global movements, but that our government's actions are exacerbating the problems.
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yeah other governments are guilty of the same thing, that's my point, care to highlight ones that aren't exacerbating problems created by the downturn?
 
Whatzmyname said:
We are getting our stuff in order to return to SA after working (not immigrating) overseas for 16 years. We own a home in Cape Town and we are ready to come back...Now last night my mom sends me a long email telling us we should really think long and hard if we want to return. She says people are breaking down buildings, starting fires so that everyone comes down to their level and basically ruin the whole country. She said crime is terrible,food getting very expensive,monthly medical payment is a joke and that just buying meat has almost become unaffordable for the average South African. She said life is very hard in SA and people feel trapped.
On a side note...my mom tends to exaggerate a lot so that is why I am asking this forum for another point of view...Is it still good in SA or are we making a mistake? :confused: My husband is worried now after reading the email as my mom rarely emails....
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Here ya go

http://search.earthcam.com/search/ft_search.php?_sbox=1&s1=1&term=south+africa
http://www.capetown-webcam.com/
http://www.intercitycharters.com/Webcams/Index.php
 
Whatzmyname said:
:) Thank you. That was nice to see. :)
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Some good ones in there. For what it's worth, I prefer it warts and all to Dubai though I've not lived there. I just can't bring myself to even considering it given that it's so expensive and outright consumer orientated. I've enjoyed my trips but after 3 days it's a bit much.
 
Whatzmyname said:
She said crime is terrible,food getting very expensive,monthly medical payment is a joke and that just buying meat has almost become unaffordable for the average South African.
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The food thing is true - pricing has significantly increase in the past 12 months - to the point I had to do a double take on some things in Pick & Pay because its more expensive than UK side (!!!). So yeah also wondering how my parents are coping with that. Same story with medical - I'm paying less for global medical coverage with skyhigh limits than my parents are paying for ZA only.

Meat - expensive by ZA salary standards but cheap by European standards so make of that what you will. e.g. Noticed that my parents stopped buying steak for braais & just go with boerewors. Depends on income i suppose.

Don't think any of those should be a deciding factor for moving though. Its just food. Safety, political stability and economic factors are way more important imo - and for those reasons I'm staying the f away from SA (holidays aside)
 
SA is still cheap for food by comparison unless I'm just in the right part of the country...
 
HavocXphere said:
The food thing is true - pricing has significantly increase in the past 12 months - to the point I had to do a double take on some things in Pick & Pay because its more expensive than UK side (!!!). So yeah also wondering how my parents are coping with that. Same story with medical - I'm paying less for global medical coverage with skyhigh limits than my parents are paying for ZA only.

Meat - expensive by ZA salary standards but cheap by European standards so make of that what you will. e.g. Noticed that my parents stopped buying steak for braais & just go with boerewors. Depends on income i suppose.

Don't think any of those should be a deciding factor for moving though. Its just food. Safety, political stability and economic factors are way more important imo - and for those reasons I'm staying the f away from SA (holidays aside)
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Its not just food though, almost all my services (levies, electricity, medical aid etc) has increased by double digits in the last couple of years. I feel for people on a fixed income :(
 
Nefertiti said:
Its not just food though, almost all my services (levies, electricity, medical aid etc) has increased by double digits in the last couple of years. I feel for people on a fixed income :(
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And then you have idjits forking out R40k+ for laptops and gadgets... and we all know how SAfricans love their expensive cars...
Consumerism will sink us
SAfricans are pushovers as consumers
 
Marsport said:
And then you have idjits forking out R40k+ for laptops and gadgets... and we all know how SAfricans love their expensive cars...
Consumerism will sink us
SAfricans are pushovers as consumers
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It was a lot worse before actual affordability checks and FICA were a thing. Guys in shacks were buying BMW's back then
 
Marsport said:
And then you have idjits forking out R40k+ for laptops and gadgets... and we all know how SAfricans love their expensive cars...
Consumerism will sink us
SAfricans are pushovers as consumers
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Nothing wrong with being a consumer. It's what human beings do.

The problems come in when there's no relation between being a consumer and being a producer. Sustainable life requires that we produce more than we consume. That's what we battle with.
 
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