Would you move to Cape Town?

[ZarZarGabor]

Sorry posting here for traffic.

A good job opportunity has come up to move to Cape Town with work, likely for 3 years or so. We have one pre-school age child and are aware childcare options there are more affordable.

We have spent some time there before and so are alive to some of the issues the country faces including crime, load shedding and bureaucracy. However we still absolutely love the place and want an adventure.

Would be grateful to hear the views of people who have direct experience living there, especially with a young child.

I know lots of people will have a “friend of a friend” who has had bad experiences in South Africa, but I’d really like to hear from people who actually live or have lived there about day to day life for an expat and the sorts of considerations we might have forgotten to factor into (we have already considered visas, healthcare, security, costly mobile phone data etc).

thanks for any advice.

I don't understand why anyone would want to live in a gated armed community? I couldn't live so cooped up, and the stress of worrying all the time would make me ill

There have been so many of these threads, and they always go one of two ways. And it always depends on which way the first few comments go.

So I admit to not reading most of the replies, as I knew from the first few posts how it was going to go.

But I am glad to see a Jozi fellow here. 😀

@Crikeyalmighty oh my gosh I totally agree. I only chose it because if cost and I can't believe I overlooked before

Please don’t worry, it seems like a lot of people commenting on this thread either haven’t been/lived there or have bought into an idea that it’s wildly dangerous. As long as you’re sensible, which is my advice for any city, eg don’t flash wads of cash around and don’t waft your phone around while waiting for a taxi etc you’ll be fine. I have spent years in Cape Town off and on and (touch wood) nothing has ever happened to me. I’m not naive but I’m also not paranoid - you’ll have a great time!

Sorry - this was a reply to @KimberleyClark

@isthismylifenow

I was there last November as well. Go me 💪

@bladebladebla1 some of the best food I've had in the med too and very reasonable. Adored Wagyu - we went 3 times!!

I grew up in Cape Town and still have many friends and family living there. I am not going to lie and say the crime and violence isn't an issue but I will say that for some people this seems worse than for others. Both my parents and my in laws live there. Sil is terrified and will not take her dc there even for a visit. Me and dh and our dc had a lovely few weeks there just a few months ago...

In your situation, I would absolutely go, but I would be negotiating hard on the package. You need to be paid well, and the package needs to take the need to live in safer and more convenient places into account, cars for both you ans your dh, short term accommodation of necessary and, very very important, private medical insurance. Do not agree to go without that!

All the people talking about being cooped up... for a start, Cape Town is not nearly as full of gated communities as other cities. And please bear in mind that my friends' "small" house in a less nice area in a gated community is still the same size as my house in England and has its own swimming pool and a good sized garden.

It's a really lovely city with young children, with lots to do. Nursery and primary school start and finish early so it's pretty common for families to.head to.beach, parks, mountains etc after school or just spend hours at home in the pool.

Your biggest practice considerations are probably that I am embarrassed to admit that Cape Townians ARE cliquey so making friends can be hard. Your best bet will be through work or through any nuesery/school you put your kid into. Or if you are sporty through a sports club. But don't be surprised if it's a but harder than you might expect.

The other issue is that if your dc is 3 and you return when they are 6, they will only just be starting reception in SA, so will be behind. So its worth considering something like a private nursery attached to an actual school that might do at least some reading/writing and/or a tutor from when they are 4 or 5 to introduce them to some of the work they will be missing out on here. As a rule, they do catch up quickly on return to the UK but I have friends who have had dc who did find this hard.

I worked there years ago pre-kids. And no, I wouldn't. I didn't personally feel safe even back then and that was without the risk of having young children. Obviously, I'm aware that people do live there and raise children there, but it wouldn't be my choice if I had other options. I've lived in several less 'developed' countries than South Africa and I personally would feel more comfortable in those. I'm still not sure I'd take my family to live there either, but it would be more of an option.

My opinion is based solely on how I felt living there. I don't like feeling hypervigilent all the time and I felt like I had to be on edge when there. When I was 25, that was doable. But I'm older and too risk averse now. I like my comfortable, safe life here.

My sibling lives very near Camps Bay and they have to arm themselves with a taser to go out to their local shopping areas in the daytime. They often spend 10 hours a day without power and are now also experiencing loss of water supply. They live in a luxury home behind gates amidst others in similar properties. They can’t ever go out at night - night being anything after 6pm when it’s still light out. Why would you consider taking your child there?

And yet my sibling lives in a similar area and walks to the shop as normal and definitely doesn't have a taser.

Gated communities aren't common in the older parts of Cape Town either, it's just freestanding houses although admittedly most people will have a contract with a security company if they can afford it.

This is fairly typical of where some of my relatives live (ignoring that the main house is half built). But you can see that the other houses in the area aren't covered in heavy security measures and it's freestanding houses on public roads, not gated communities.

And here is a typical house in a nice area closer to central Cape Town. You can see from the picture that there's an electronic gate and a sign up for a security company but it's not Fort Knox other than that.

Where near Camps Bay do they live?

As I was there a few weekends back. And we were out, after 6pm i.e. night time, No tazer. I have never had a stun gun nor would I need one to go shopping in the day.

And we had a fabulous time.

We do have to prepare for loadshedding yes, it can be a pita. But it is not going out for 10 hours straight unless there is a cable fault somewhere.

Our old neighbours moved from Cape Town, some of the stories they told us were horrendous. We've visited Cape Town on holidays and loved it, but that was 10 years ago. Not in a hurry to go back after talking to the neighbours.

i would debate that anyone "has" to arm themselves with a taser to go out to their local shops in the daytime in that area of CT but i knew certain people that very palpably lived at that level of fear...but everyone has different levels of tolerance and acceptance. for me, being there as a single person was different to to how i would feel now having 2 kids.

@Myfirstcarwasamini I find that so odd. I had a lovely dinner at the top end of the City, walked up to my friend's car, got an uber home just a few months ago. DH and I were out most nights - visiting friends and family too.

My friends do most likely have personal security devices - haven't actually asked - but they walk or drive as needed. Although, it's Cape Town so you have to also understand that Cape Townians have a very skewed idea of distance and are NOTORIOUS for a) thinking distances the rest of us consider normal are mammoth and b) refusing to walk short distances eg from one side of a high street to the other. This is a cultural reality that has caused friends from other parts of South Africa or other countries much amusement over the years and now that I've lived away from Cape Town for a long time, I love to tease my friends and family about it. (as a test, ask any local how they would feel about travelling from say the City to Claremont for dinner - trust me, they will treat that like you've suggested a drive of 3 hours when it's really just 20 minutes. My Dad still considers driving to my mother in law's house an epic journey... I think it's 15 minutes from where I grew up! Both DH and I, even years later, still marvel at how Cape Town is actually so small that the day after we got engaged we were still able to make the rounds and see pretty much all of our respective families.)

Yes! Without a thought I would do.

@Triffid1 yes the distance thing! Whereas my friends from Johannesburg would happily cover about 150km on a night out popping into a few places.

I had a friend who lived just on the corner near there!

I lived briefly in Joburg and it was one of the reasons I had to leave .... I couldn't stand the fact that I regularly did 300km on a weekend. I felt like I spent my life driving places. Returning to Cape Town was so fabulous after that as I didn't mind the driving around so had a really diverse life and it was still 100x less driving etc than living in Joburg!

Omg I laughed so much at this 😂😂

As it is just so accurate.

You don't have to live in one. There are many areas that have regular houses without the gated element.

@isthismylifenow a friend was here for work a few weeks ago and stayed with us for a night. We had a good laugh as we were talking about when I was growing up, evening activities for kids just wasn't a thing vs here where my kids are regularly at sports etc until quite late.

He was saying it's still the same (to be fair, school starts and finishes earlier too) but ALSO, that part of it is that no one does activities more than 1km from home! So his kids have a "late" football practice once a week that finishes at 18:00.... they're home, eating dinner, by 18:05! .

I was staying in town, and we travelled to my friends parents in Hermanus for the day. In the end they INSISTED we stay over for the night, as we couldn't possibly travel back that far again the same day 😂

Meanwhile, back in JHB I could easily travel that distance to get to work each day ....

My brother commutes from Joburg to Swaziland one day a week.