I know a man who lived in South Africa when they wouldn't let you take your money out of the country. (I don't know if it is still that way) He bought a gorgeous ocean going yacht.... fully tricked out with gold faucets and all the bells and whistles you could buy. He spent all he had on that boat.
Then he sailed to England, sold the boat and set up life there.
Another man converted all his cash into rare stamps, placed
them inside the back of his watch, and flew away a rich
man.
Probably a good time to buy another boat then... ;-)
Wow.
I know someone who has passed on since, who lost his pharmacy because the government would not clear indigent beggars from his front door, everything he owned was not allowed out of SA. He built a small catamaran and he and his wife made it to the Netherlands Antilles where they supported themselves by running tourist cruises.
The mother of a friend elected to stay when her children all emigrated after their father died. She stayed because her pension could not be taken out and by then the Rand was not worth enough to make it worthwhile.
Your friend must have either made his getaway way early in the crisis or he had friends in high places. Every South African I have met in the past 20 years or so had a vast tale of financial loss.
I knew a guy back in the early nineties from SA. He made an annual trip to Hawaii to surf the north shore every winter. One of his surf boards was always really heavy and, of course, he never took the boards home with him.