Moving back to SA

S

spanx

Active Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Location
Somerset West
I'll keep this short for now but let's say you've been living in London for 6 years, got your UK Paspport but still thinking of SA all the time. Missing friends and family etc.

Would you count yourself lucky for having the opportunity to stay in a relative "safe" Britain or would you take your chances by moving back to SA knowing that if the ***** hit the fan you could always move back to the UK again?
 
Thousands of people are in this situation. My daughter included.

Are you going to come back to the same city in SA or a different one?
What were the attributes of South Africa that you liked the best?
Do you "feel" South African, or are you more leaning towards the UK

I am a UK citizen and have been living here for close on 50 years, in the western Cape and although I like visiting the UK (especially London) and spent several years there over a period, but would not want to live anywhere else than here.

I don't really think the **** will hit the fan. Where-ever you live there are problems of some sort. However, if you live here, its up to you to plan far ahead, don't start thinking of retirements when you are 60.
 
I'm originally from Pretoria but got married since and my wifes' family is down in Cape Town. A lot of my friends has also moved down to CT since so we'll be moving there. We visit SA once a year and split our time between CT and Pretoria. We both love it down there the only thing keeping us from moving back is the worries about crime, employment etc.

"Do you "feel" South African, or are you more leaning towards the UK"
Click to expand...

I definitely do feel more South African, I have met some wonderful people and made some good friends while living in the UK but my SA friends will always be my "close" friends.
 
Then come back. Don't hesitate. Certainly you will miss a few things about London. The cosmopolitan aspect, the relative efficiency, the Oyster card, all those historic buildings, museums and galleries (if you like visiting them). But SA has a whole host of wonderful attributes that I don't have to remind you about, including fabulous weather, reasonably priced houses (compared with London) and lots less road traffic. And I think people are more friendly here
 
Do not be silly. SA is awesome if you do not become a victim of crime. I do not know of one person who has not suffered an attack or some sort of crime.
 
chrisc4290 said:
Thousands of people are in this situation. My daughter included.

Are you going to come back to the same city in SA or a different one?
What were the attributes of South Africa that you liked the best?
Do you "feel" South African, or are you more leaning towards the UK

I am a UK citizen and have been living here for close on 50 years, in the western Cape and although I like visiting the UK (especially London) and spent several years there over a period, but would not want to live anywhere else than here.

I don't really think the **** will hit the fan. Where-ever you live there are problems of some sort. However, if you live here, its up to you to plan far ahead, don't start thinking of retirements when you are 60.
Click to expand...
It will happen very slowly until you realise that SA is another Zim. By then you won't have the money to relocate and the Rand will be worthless.

I would stay in the UK and visit often. That way the OP get's the best of both worlds. Britain may be in a financial hole, but things aint so cheap in SA any more.
 
I'm sorry to say that if I where over there I would not consider coming back until things have stabilised, if they ever do.
 
Moved to NZ and stayed for 18 months. Then had to go back to SA. 18 months later went to NZ again.
This time I've been here nearly 6 months.
I plan to stay in NZ. I find I don't miss SA any more. The fact that I don't have to worry about safety so much makes life so much less stressful. Taking public transport late at night, through the city, and finishing off with a 1k walk home in the dark, no problem :)
 
I've spoken to many people about this and they all have different views, it's not an easy decision to make. On the one hand I love living in London, public transport is great, I can sleep in peace at night, walk alone at night without a worry in the world. List goes on.

On the other I miss my friends and family, miss the sunny weather, miss the people and also the general familiarity of being in SA.

Strangely enough I don't meet any "new to London" South Africans any more and most that I do meet are planning to return to SA in the near future. It might just be the circles I'm moving in at the moment but I get the general idea that most do want to move back.

How I see things at the moment is that life is short and one should spend your precious little time on earth with people you love. Which in my case would be to move back to SA to be closer to friends and family and then see how it goes.

Another thing to consider is the current living costs in SA, I'm well aware that things has become quiet expensive and being away for 6 years I have NO clue what kind of salary I can expect back in SA.

So bloody confused :confused:
 
spanx said:
We visit SA once a year...
Click to expand...

I'm curious to know the things you notice (good and bad) about South Africa on these visits. Things that have changed and/or things that didn't but are more obvious now that you've lived elsewhere for so long?

spanx said:
Strangely enough I don't meet any "new to London" South Africans any more and most that I do meet are planning to return to SA in the near future. It might just be the circles I'm moving in at the moment but I get the general idea that most do want to move back.
Click to expand...

That might have something to do with the working holiday visas being no more. But that doesn't mean people aren't still coming over - we just employed a fresh arrival. You should ask yourself why you're looking for other South Africans as friends (and by proxy, why you're here in the first place?). If you have difficulty befriending non-South Africans and having a social life without South Africans around you, then you're definitely in the wrong place.

When I came over it was to travel - never planned to stay longer than a year - and I deliberately avoided South Africans as far as I could, because I wanted to get to know other cultures. I still do, but for other reasons. That said, I have a few South African friends here whom I know from before I and they came over respectively, and through them I've met a few more. But all of us are pretty well adjusted, all of us have many English friends, all of us are married to/engaged to/dating English people, and we don't spend any more time talking about South Africa than we need to. There is nothing worse than to have to listen to someone harp on about their old country, weather they're singing its praises or slagging it off.

And that is why I avoid South Africans here. Because 9 out of every 10 I meet, can't have a conversation without drifting into either of the following, all delivered with a healthy dose of hyperbole:

1. What a paradise South Africa is. (How perfect the weather is, how friendly the people are, how cheap everything is)
2. What a terrible place South Africa is. (How dangerous it is, how terrible the crime is, how it's going to become another Zim, etc)
3. What a terrible place England is. (terrible weather, terrible food, expensive, blah blah blah)

Whatever their reasons are, I don't want to my head to be filled with their nonsense. They're the people I wouldn't be friends with in South Africa anyway.

Anyway, just my opinion.
 
I am encouraging my children to leave. Our family are not patriots to a specific country in the sense of nationalism, we consider ourselves global citizens with a whole planet to enjoy and live on.

I have no loyalty towards my country of birth or any country, loyalty is not an emotion to be wasted on nationalism, I find it personally narrow-minded to think in such provincial terms.

Our home culture is intellectual of nature, we enjoy academics, art, classical music and so forth, the weather and climate of where we live is irrelevant to our personality types, since we have our noses in books most of the time, or sit in front of a pc most of the time.

The other reasons for encouraging them to leave is for peace of mind. They will have more freedom of movement in countries that do not go into lockdown after dark because of horrifying cruel crimes and they will have access to societies and cultures that have the same value system as them (eg peers.)

I do not love Africa or South Africa or any other country, I have travelled widely and lived in other countries, to me the geographical location of where I make my nest is irrelevant, as long I can live in relative peace and be left alone.

All countries have crime and problems and joblessness, but what makes South Africa stand out, is the very high rate of exceptionally cruel crime and for some of us, the cruelty of these crimes are a very heavy burden to bare, as we have a respect for all lifeforms and our attitude is one of being humane and non violent and we are deeply horrified.

A would pack my bags right now to go somewhere else, where I can get a little peace of mind and get away from the relentless hard crime and political trauma and chaos.
 
I lived overseas for a while and returned because I thought SA was my home and it had possibilities and a future.
I strongly advise you to rethink any decision to come back here.
Returning to this country was without doubt the biggest mistake of my life.
Think long and hard and take the perception that SA is your home, out of it.
My opinion is if you are planning to have kids stay away from here
 
Totally depends if you have or want kids.

Cause that is what its mostly about. For now SA is still OK, but we dont know about the future. That home sick feeling you have is only because you grew up here and if you want to help your children, make that "home" a place where the future is clearer than SA.

So in short suffer, so you kids dont have to.

I am lucky that I dont have kids so SA is ok for me, and being past my sell by date its safe to say I dont have to worry to much about them either. I recently returned after spending a couple of years in the world so to speak, stayed in China/Europe and NZ and got homesick.

I can promise you this would not have been the case if I had kids.
 
I have been to a few countries already & would move if I could.

Don't come back. Life here is not what you remembered it as 10 or even 5 years ago.
 
spanx said:
Another thing to consider is the current living costs in SA, I'm well aware that things has become quiet expensive and being away for 6 years I have NO clue what kind of salary I can expect back in SA.

So bloody confused :confused:
Click to expand...


Shouldn't this be your first priority, to find out what salary you can expect before you even decide to make the move? Sounds more like an emotional decision. Some very good advice here, so do your homework first.

Good luck
 
If you have the option, then come back, live in South Africa for a while and see how you like it. There's trade-offs no matter where you live. The UK might be paradise for some, South Africa for others. Within the UK you'll get those that think London is the greatest and others who would rather live anywhere else.

satanboy said:
Not one? I hardly know one.
Click to expand...
Know a few people who only became victims of crime while living in the UK.

spanx said:
I've spoken to many people about this and they all have different views, it's not an easy decision to make. On the one hand I love living in London, public transport is great, I can sleep in peace at night, walk alone at night without a worry in the world. List goes on.
Click to expand...
Safety in South Africa depends a lot on where you live. But many people would give up everything for safety. Depends what's important to you.

Strangely enough I don't meet any "new to London" South Africans any more and most that I do meet are planning to return to SA in the near future. It might just be the circles I'm moving in at the moment but I get the general idea that most do want to move back.
Click to expand...
The recession probably plays a role in that too.

How I see things at the moment is that life is short and one should spend your precious little time on earth with people you love. Which in my case would be to move back to SA to be closer to friends and family and then see how it goes.
Click to expand...
That's it. South Africa's a good place to have children too.

Another thing to consider is the current living costs in SA, I'm well aware that things has become quiet expensive and being away for 6 years I have NO clue what kind of salary I can expect back in SA.
Click to expand...
Some things are and have always been more expensive than the UK, others have always been and still are far cheaper. When I was in the UK I was regularly hearing people talk about how they were struggling to keep up with the increasing costs just like what we hear in South Africa. What you'll earn depends on what you do, but there's a demand for skilled people in many areas.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X