Our reasons are many and varied. To explain how we came to the incredibly difficult decision to leave this beautiful country, our home, our family and friends, would be difficult. The people of South Africa, the different cultures, are amazing. But we have been beleaguered by one terible government after another, all of whom have tried to divide us. I don't know if the struggles of post-colonial countries can be solved any time soon. Many of our family and friends have left already and are scattered around the world, wherever they've been able to find jobs. Most of us have some form of anxiety and PTSD from crime. I have been mugged at knifepoint, been burgled numerous times, had my car stolen, broken into, my husband and I have been the victims of an armed robbery and fraud. We cannot walk in the street. We live in gilded cages. And we are the lucky ones. The poor cannot afford security and are even more vulnerable to crime.
We had such high hopes when the ANC came into power after the first democratic elections. I was 11 at the time. We thought finally, the many poor and struggling South Africans would be lifted out of poverty. Now, after decades of ANC rule, people are poorer than ever, hunger is on the rise, we have had instances of cholera as a direct result of corruption and mismanagement. From the time of Zuma on, the country has been captured and sold to bad international actors, powerful entities, and govt officials. They have stolen everything and are now looting South Africa's corpse. They will probably escape to Dubai once they have lined their pockets and left us with nothing.
Our area in Johannesburg has been without water for weeks. We go hours a day without electricity. We have had to spend tens of thousands of our hard earned money on a water tank, solar panels, a water pump, and inverter. We pay huge taxes and I'd be happy to do so if I knew it was going to help alleviate the sea of deprivation and impoverishment, but the government literally steals it out of the mouths of the poor, and at every traffic light I stop at there are impoverished people begging for money. We go hours a day without electricity. We are selling our house now and moving down to the Western Cape asap as things are still working there, for now, as the ANC hasn't managed to get enough of the vote to be in power there.
I spent two years in England after high school and loved it. I don't think I will feel safe until I am out of SA. I know I said I'm looking for areas in the UK with a lower cost of living, but honestly am willing to pay more to be in a safe area where I can be free to walk on the street and in the park, and take a train without fear of being attacked. We wanted to stay and be a part of building an inclusive and prosperous SA and have lived in hope for years, but those hopes are dashed now, even though many people still live in denial, saying maybe things will turn around, even though it is obvious SA is now a failed state.
We are in our 40s and excited about the larger economy and greater opportunity to grow in our careers in the UK. Businesses have been pulling out of SA at an alarming rate, engineers and doctors are leaving in droves. I am a legal editor and my husband is a web designer and fine artist. We have no children. We are civic-minded, ethical, hard-working and law-abiding people who will contribute to the economy and to our communities. I work in animal rescue here on a volunteer basis, but have had to stop as there have been too many hijackings on the road to our nearest SPCA.
The Scottish Highlands idea is just a flight of fancy; in reality we will want to be near shops, hospitals and culture. But safety is paramount, as I cannot continue to wake up at night in terror after having nightmares about a home invasion.
We also don't see a future for our careers if we lose our jobs or our companies fold. At each HR meeting for the last couple of years, we have been told that there are too many white, so-called coloured and Indian people in our company and we need to reduce the number to a much smaller percentage. African nationalism is rising, especially with the growing popularity of Julius Malema and the EFF. There is now a ban on hiring any more white people into the company. And it's not my company's fault, it is the national legislation which requires these quotas. I know we need to redress the imbalances of the past, but I also need a livelihood to survive, and I know I shouldn't take it personally, but hearing my companies management tell me I am the wrong colour and that they need to get rid of people with my skin colour is extremely demoralising and also frightening.
I'm sorry if this all sounds like a pity party. I know how lucky we are to be able to get an ancestry visa (it's pretty much a sure thing according to our immigration lawyer) which will allow us to get out of SA and go to a more stable and developed country. But this is actually the truth about living in South Africa in the provinces outside the Western Cape. And our elderly parents refuse to come with us so we are dealing with grief and anxiety about leaving them here. Everywhere the ANC governs has crumbled into a dystopian nightmare.