I consider South Africa to be akin to a high-risk investment – it will have its highs and some bad lows, but zooming out, things are generally moving upward.
Rotterdam, Netherlands (11 August 2021) – While it may seem like many South Africans are leaving the country – for various reasons – we cannot forget that there are also many who moved abroad, and are coming back home.
Frikkie Snyman decided to share his story with Good Things Guy and explain why he and his wife are moving back to South Africa – even in what may feel like incredibly turbulent times.
Read it below.
“My wife and I have decided to move back to South Africa, after living in Rotterdam, the Netherlands for 3 years. As you can imagine, we get a lot of strange looks once we share this news with people. And then usually, the barrage of “why”-questions follows.”
Here, I’d like to address some of these common questions, but first, some background and context is needed.
I want to make it clear that this is what we took into consideration when we made the decision. I fully comprehend that every situation is unique. Furthermore, I would advocate that everyone should try and spend a few years abroad if it’s within their means. It is an unparalleled eye-opening experience and an adventure that has the power to utterly and embarrassingly expose the close-minded nature of oneself. Even more so as an Afrikaner.
I studied Computer Science and my wife Business Management, both at the University of Pretoria. My sister was living in Rotterdam, and after we had the opportunity to visit her, we decided that it would be a nice adventure for us to take on. I was quickly able to find a job as a Software Developer, and through it, got a residence permit for both my wife and myself.
We never “fled” from South Africa. We were blessed to have a great life there, even though both of us had been victims of non-violent crimes.
In our second year living in the Netherlands, we started thinking about buying a house. That’s when we realised that we’d want to have children in the near future and that we yearned for our children to have grandparents and our parents to have grandchildren. There was also the consideration that a less than 80 square-meter, backyard-less apartment reaches upward of €350,000 (around R6,7 million).
And then not to mention the weather…
Of course, these are inconsequential things to be complaining about. In truth, I’m of the opinion that the Dutch have fostered the peak of what is possible to achieve within human society. Unemployment hovers around 3%, it is in the top 25 countries in the Global Peace Index, its nominal GDP is the 17th largest in the world (for a country barely bigger than the Kruger National Park), and the infrastructure is maintained and works.
So then, what are the common questions I get asked when I share news of our moving back to South Africa with other (especially South African) people? And more importantly, what are my answers.
“Isn’t South Africa unsafe?”
Usually, this question comes prefaced with: “You know, things aren’t as safe as they used to be back in the day…”.
There are a few things we can consider here, but most obviously, let’s take a look at the homicide rate and rape rate in South Africa.
Over the past century, South Africa has experienced the following murder rate:
From: https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/blog/analysis-why-south-africas-murder-rates-today-are-not-higher-ever
When it comes to rape, we can only consider the reported rape rate from 2008, since the legal definition of rape in South Africa before this time was very narrowly defined:
From: https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php
The simple reality is that South Africa hasn’t been “safe” for the past 60 years. In fact, it was at its unsafest (in terms of homicide) during the much-reminisced safety of the pre-1994 days.
Overall, looking at the crimes from 2019 compared to 2020, we have the following:
From: https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/421424/south-africa-crime-stats-2020-everything-you-need-to-know/
Perhaps counter-intuitively, it seems that there is actually a general decline in crimes in South Africa.
Of course, this does not mean that South Africa is safe. I am simply arguing that South Africa hasn’t really been safe for a long time, yet, we are led to believe that we are going back to unprecedented levels of unsafety when the reality is moving, slowly, in the opposite direction.
“Aren’t you worried about the economy and run-away inflation?”
South Africa and Nigeria are the biggest economies in Africa, so it only seems fair to use Nigeria as a reference.
Let’s take a look at South Africa’s GDP per capita over the past 60 years:
GDP Per Capita of South Africa vs Nigeria. From: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=ZA-NG
Up until the last decade (no thanks to the Zuptas), South Africa has seen a pretty healthy growth in its GDP per capita.
How about inflation then?
Inflation in South Africa and Nigeria. From: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?locations=ZA-NG
Inflation has been pretty stable in South Africa. In fact, it’s been on a downward trend since 2016.
Again, I don’t think South Africa has been utilising its full potential. On the contrary, I think it’s quite clear that rampant corruption is holding South Africa back. Despite it, however, South Africa has still been able to march on.
“Don’t you feel threatened by BEE?”
I have seen some genuine worries about the fact that we are white and our capacity to find jobs. Let’s face it, unemployment in South Africa is not a pretty picture:
The unemployment rate in South Africa. From: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.NE.ZS?locations=ZA
If we split it by population group, however:
From: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1129481/unemployment-rate-by-population-group-in-south-africa
It’s quite clear that a white South African has a much higher chance of being employed than any other race. There is a much bigger problem when it comes to unemployment, and it’s urgent to solve. BEE in its current format is abysmal, and it’s clearly not fixing the problem that it intended to address. But it’s insincere to state that a white person cannot find a job in South Africa as easily as a person of any other race – the opposite holds true.
Conclusion
In this article, I hope to have made the point clear that “fleeing” from South Africa is not more of a relevant reason now than it was 60 years ago, during the “good old days”. I consider South Africa to be akin to a high-risk investment – it will have its highs and some bad lows, but zooming out, things are generally moving upward.
Emigration is a hard choice to make, and I do not envy anyone who has had to make that decision. There is also a certain level of irony in the effort that the Afrikaner is willing to put into integrating into a completely foreign land compared to the effort it would take to integrate with their diverse countrymen. But I leave this discussion for another day.
We will dearly miss the people, culture, and workings of the Netherlands. We have been treated well here, and it will always hold a warm place in our hearts.
For now, I am looking forward to throwing a tjoppie on the braai and reminiscing about the wonderful time that we were able to spend in the Netherlands.
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