Posted on 01/30/2004 7:37:22 PM PST by blam
Disappointed South Africans shun life in gloomy Britain
By Tim Butcher in Johannesburg
(Filed: 31/01/2004)
They called it the "Chicken Run", the exodus in the mid-1990s of thousands of white South Africans fearful of the spiralling crime, political violence and job insecurity that accompanied black government at the end of apartheid.
But now, slowly and almost without a sound, a group of pathfinders are making their way back, grumbling about the low standard of living they found in Britain, Australia and elsewhere, and keen to restart a new life back in what they now see as a more stable South Africa.
Ten years after majority rule, they represent a significant endorsement of the rule of President Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela before him.
"We left South Africa because we feared for our way of life and our standard of living here," said Aleck Markov, a 33-year-old dentist from Johannesburg.
"But what we found in London was so much lower than what we were used to and things have not worked out here in South Africa like people said they would. So after six years in Britain the choice was easy - to come home."
Mr Markov had no problem finding work in Britain when he arrived in 1996 and for a wage much higher than he could command in South Africa. But the high cost of living, the weather and poor public services slowly took their toll.
"It was when our two children arrived that we really got the message," he said.
"We were in a tiny flat in Finchley with the rain beating down and the kids were going crazy, but we could not take them outside. That's when we knew we had to come home."
For £40,000 he bought a three-bedroomed house to the north west of Johannesburg with a large garden and mountain view. He commutes 15 minutes on a motorcycle to a dental practice in the city's smart northern suburbs.
Grant Ravenscroft, 35, was one of the first South Africans to apply to emigrate to Australia after the end of apartheid, but he found life there so tough that he has returned to Johannesburg.
"Some migrations happen when there is a depression and everyone moves to survive, but the truth was the exodus from South Africa in the mid-1990s was not like that," he said.
"Things were not that bad, people had the two Mercedes, the maid and the swimming pool, so when they got to Europe or Australia they knew what they had left behind.
"In South Africa I always owned my own business, but in Perth to make ends meet I had to do day shifts washing plates and serving tables in a restaurant and night shifts as a barman."
With his savings Mr Ravenscroft has enough to buy his own restaurant in Johannesburg which is due to open next month.
Their stories are echoed on a website set up by a charity to encourage South Africans to return. "This is the land of opportunity," the website www.homecomingrevolution.co.za, says. "Sure, it's not perfect, but hey, don't wait until it gets better, come home and make it better!"
The number of South Africans resident in Britain in 2001 had doubled from 10 years earlier to more than 132,000, according to the last British census. There are few signs so far that the trickle back is turning into a flood.
LOL, yup.
I live north of the English border and the weather truly sucks here as well. A far cry from South Africa.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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