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Thread: Fleeing South Africa

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    Fleeing South Africa

    Has it got that bad ... it may seem like a silly question ... but if you look at the facts ... how safe is it to live in South Africa?

    An example Ethekwini metro water and waste have armed private security to protect their staff 24/7/365 and have for some time now ... either it is too dangerous for staff or someone has a connection in the department ... organising a side line tender ... a bit strange that the electricity department dont have private security vans following them around?

    A women is run over by a car ... instead of people assisting her ... they rob her of all her personal belongings.

    You cant walk home from work without being robbed at gun point ... I witnessed it 200 m away from my home.

    You cant go for a run in the hood without an attempted armed robbery ... fortunately I had a peacemaker.

    A truck cannot break down on the road or be involved in a an accident without being looted.

    I could go on and on and on and on................................................ ... The realty is this is a f%^& dangerous place to live ...unless you live in a bubble (estate ... you have to leave at some point )


    So why the thread ... I am watching friends and family leave by the day ... People are waiting for insurance to pay up so that they can relocate their business to a safer country ... many have applied for ancestral visas ... some have already ... and busy getting degrees ... apparently it helps with relocation.

    Everyday people are trying to find ways to leave this dark shyte hole ... most cant understand why I havent left yet (half my family have already left ... I have the documents required to move to the UK) ... there is rumble in the family that the rest of the family are planning to relocate ... my older kids are busy with the paper work ... which means my grandchildren will be gone soon.

    There is talk that the looting was just a test of what is to come ... from my years of experience in the SADF ... I hope it never gets to that point ... watching people being hacked to death with a panga is something I hope I never have to relive.

    If it is so dangerous ... can't people get to to a safer country and apply for refugee status?

    It is terrible to hear stories of how families are trying everything to get out as soon as possible ... they are ... it would be interesting to see the figues ... if other countries opened the their borders to people wanting to flee this country and it wasnt so expensive .. I hear there are new tax laws in an attempt to ease the money drain.

    If you drive through some places ... the buildings are still completely burnt and no sign of repairs or reconstruction ... Businessman that I speak to ... who have lost their business and waiting for an insurance claim ... have no intention of reinvesting ... some I have spoken to are saying its pity they didnt get looted ... because they would also be leaving.

    I dont see any training centres popping up ... no manufacturing plants ... just more and more massive storage facilities for importing junk ... more empty building in the industrial areas and centre.

    To give you an idea of how bad it is ... the person I was dealing with trying to sort out the crap with switches ... is already in Ireland ... it happening everywhere ... you go to a company ... ask for a person you have been dealing with ... sorry he has not just left the company ... he is gone to another country.

    Maybe it is all part of a bigger plan we dont know about.

    When you hear big talk about the launch of EV's in Sa as the president waits for the generator to start thank to load shedding ... it makes you wonder ... what is really going on.
    Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.

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    Why are you still here then?

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    Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
    Why are you still here then?
    I am asking myself the same question ... hence the post.
    Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.

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    There is crime and violence all over the world. America has more people in prison than any other country and they also have 1000x more mass shootings than any other country. Their economy is up the creek and nobody wants to work. The UK economy is also up the creek with Brexit and Covid etc, they have lots of knife crime and they also have high unemployment.

    Be careful of confirmation-bias - One tends to cherry-pick examples to support an argument - SA has its issues but it is not as terrible as you make it out to be.

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    I was sitting thinking which was worse ... the shriek of a person being hacked with a bush knife ... or the people who were burnt alive.

    I always thought of myself and what it was like for me ... at least I was 19 ... had already spent 20 months in a bush war ... a lot of shyte happened during that period ... my head was already messed up ... I have never considered what it must have been like for a young child going through those experiences ... that child would be between 40 and 55 years now.
    Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.

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    Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
    There is crime and violence all over the world. America has more people in prison than any other country and they also have 1000x more mass shootings than any other country. Their economy is up the creek and nobody wants to work. The UK economy is also up the creek with Brexit and Covid etc, they have lots of knife crime and they also have high unemployment.

    Be careful of confirmation-bias - One tends to cherry-pick examples to support an argument - SA has its issues but it is not as terrible as you make it out to be.
    I can apply for a job online there are so many jobs in the UK ... I dont know how you can compare ?
    Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ians View Post
    I can apply for a job online there are so many jobs in the UK ... I dont know how you can compare ?
    I can compare because I work for myself and I make fairly good money. The work that I do is not bound to a particular country - I will make money wherever I am. I got another fat long term contact yesterday with a huge national food manufacturer so I am satisfied with my situation here. I dislike the USA because I dislike the things the people do; I dislike the UK because the weather is k@k, they live in tiny little houses on top of one another and the place is 10000% over populated. I cannot see myself being happier in the USA or in the UK. I might go to the UK if everything comes apart here.
    Last edited by adrianh; 11-Nov-21 at 09:56 AM.

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    Every country has its own problems. If its not politics, its the cost of living or the weather. We have several friends who have returned from Switserland (3 families of Swiss citizens) and two from Canada. I am also aware of people who have returned from Australia as they could not adapt there with street gangs etc. If you cannot afford to live in a good neighbourhood, you are exposed to crime, same as in SA.

    It may be easy for people with family ties in the UK, as most of them have never been real South Africans, they were just here on a temporary basis with a goal to return anyway. People who were born and bred here, including descendants of the 1820 settlers, have become part of the country.

    I was not born here, but arrived at the age of 6. I became part of the country, I bleed when the country bleeds, but I glow when I see the dry Namaqualand in flower, the great Orange and other rivers in flood, the majestic Drakensberg and the Cape mountains, our wildlife, the Knysna forest, our magnificent coastline and pristine beaches. The list is endless. I love our diversity and the different cultures. We have so much to learn from each other.

    Yes, there is crime and corruption, but maybe that is your purpose in life, to start to make a difference and throw that 1st starfish back into the ocean.
    Excellence is not a skill; its an attitude...

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    Let me rather focus on the aim of this thread ... lets say you want to leave/flee (it seems many do) ... if you dont have a British passport ... or a wife or grandmother or millions paid from insurance thanks to the looting ... or applying for a green card ... how can people who want to leave make it a reality ... as I said to someone last night ... if I could give up passport and be stuck here ... like them ... I would do it for them ... but I cant ... its almost like they are trapped here.

    As I mentioned ... for me it a ticket and I am gone ... maybe that's why I havent left ... I know I can just get up and go ... ok I did want to leave to go live in Florida many man years ago ... a motor vehicle accident left me cripple for a while ... so that trip fell through.

    I believe this is a great country and the place I would want to spend the rest of my life ... I also believe the bad people are a minority but they control the lives of the people who just want to go to work ... live life and enjoy safe environment for their family.
    Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.

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    You can buy your way in or be on their skills shortlist. This stuff is very well documented and there is a Facebook group dedicated to this topic. I can ask my wife for the Facebook group details if you are keen on joining the group.

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