Coming soon! Sig Change....

Your cleaner is VAT registered? Bloody 'ell - these Phillipinos are
getting well sorted out, aren't they?

 

If I pay 12 quid, I get one who speaks English!

 

So you knew too little about his culture and language to return the
compliment and call him Mdala.

Maybe an explanation of a similar scenario would help.
In the army an old sergeant must salute the young Rupert just out of
Sandhurst and call him Sir, but woe betide the Rupert who does not respect
the sergeant and ask for his help and experience.

 

The majority of bokkers I've worked with have been fine with the end of
apartheid (and, frankly, who wouldn't be?) but generally quite bitter
about the way the pendulum swung the other way in the aftermath. The
reason they're over here is because they reckon it's almost impossible
for anyone white to get a decent job because everything's earmarked for
the blacks.

 

Speaking of Sun City - I always remember getting very cynical about
Eddy Grant (he of the "give me hope Joanna" anti-aparthied song) by
discovering that he was quite happily playing Sun City at the time..

Phil

 

At least we got Kevin Pietersen out of it.

 

I've discussed this with them in the past and made that point myself,
only to find that the conversation suddenly turned a lot more heated.

I've had this from heavily-accented bokkers who love nothing more than a
good braai and an overladen backpack and even a brit ex-pat who moved
out there and promptly moved back again (after an extended period of
commuting back to the UK every week for work!)

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

It's a little dangerous to draw too much of a conclusion from the
opinions of those who got the **** out of Dodge.

Working there is now an interesting and enlightening experience.

Particularly in some parts of the finance industry which were totally
Afrikaans-dominated.

 

I've always said there's nothing quite as interesting and enlightening
as being carjacked on the way to the office.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

And that's one of the things you hear from people who've left: how
*dangerous* it is. Those who are still there seem (oddly) to have
differing opinions.

Funny, that.

 

Visitors can still find it perturbing.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Bear

See, that's just odd. I've worked there, and worked closely with a lot
of people over an extended time (since not long after democracy came to
town) and that's just not my experience, nor that of those I know.

Sure, there is violence, but it tends to be in quite specific areas.
Jo'burg CBD was a very dodgy area for a while, but I understand it's not
as bad now.

Look, there are parts of London that make me *much* less comfortable
than I've ever felt in Jo'burg.

I discussed this very thing with a friend last time I was down. "Yeah",
he said "thing is, those who've left want to justify their decision. It
doesn't do our country any favours".

 

I can't claim much experience in SA, but when I visited our office in
Johannesburg a few years ago I was quite struck by the new technique for
knocking off security vans, as described in one of the local papers. It
goes like this:

1. Pinch a big saloon with lots and lots of airbags (you'll need the
airbags)
2. Use the saloon to ram the security truck off a raised section of road
so it falls on its side (this is why you need the airbags)
3. Shoot at the exposed underside of the truck (which is less
bulletproof than the sides and top) with a machine gun until everyone
inside is dead.
4. Get the money out (I forget how they did this bit) and go away.

There was even a photo showing the aftermath, complete with colandered
floor panels.

I was also struck by the security briefing when I arrived, at which we
were informed that everyone would be out of the office by 5pm, as
someone who stayed to do some work after hours at the World Food
Programme office across the road had been shot dead by visitors the
previous week.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Bear

Uh-huh. Much like any country.

Yep, and I don't suppose that was spun for dramatic effect at all.

 

If you pay 15 quid, you get one who understands English but does not speak.

 

For 9 quid I get my previous cleaner's son's 20-ish girlfriend. Who
cares whether she speaks or not?

 

That's a good excuse for apartheid.

 

That's a bit more expansive than my reply to him.

 

The SA government had been under pressure from the locals to put a
stop to the kids of British families who'd emigrated there not having
to do national service when they'd been educated in the country. In
principle they were right because employers knew that when you took on
a school leaver he'd be collared for 2 years NS followed by 10 years
of annual duty which alternated between 90 days on the border and 30
days internal security.

They could hold onto troops doing national service or 90 day rota if
they felt it was in the best interests of the country.

Most of the time the troops were somewhere around the Caprivi Strip
where most cross border (1) incursions took place and they used the
excuse of 'hot pursuit' if they nipped into Angola for a quick spot of
live weapons practice. One of my workmates was an armoured car
commander and he reckoned that one pursuit took them to within about 5
miles of Luanda and that's not really a very short distance.

I was flown into Angola for a 6 week job and I've never been so scared
before or since. This was a helicopter insertion and we were escorted
by SADF gunships crewed by teenagers who'd just watched Apocalypse
Now. I think you can imagine the mayhem as they decided to open fire
on anything looking even slightly dodgy.

If you do a quick google search on the subject of which languages were
taught in schools over there in the '70s you see what the response was
to those that objected to being taught in Afrikaans.

(1) Look at a map and see where the Strip is and you'll instantly
notice that it doesn't actually border on SA. In fact it isn't even
close...

 

It always was a dangerous place but the difference now is that the
dangerous places have spread.