One country, one language, I heard the Cosas activists chant during a march in Stellenbosch two weeks ago. The language these angry young people were talking about, is the language of the British Empire that had colonised South Africa and many other African states and had systematically brutalised indigenous people for centuries. The young people’s […]

I used to think anxiety and depression were all a load of hogwash, those things cray-cray, pill-popping people go through; until, quite suddenly, I woke up as an expat living abroad and didn’t feel at all myself. It started with a panic attack in the middle of the night, when I was woken up by […]

Inspiring South African businessman, former crime journalist, speaker, co-founder of Lead SA and recipient of the National Order (amongst many other accolades), Yusuf Abramjee has written a powerful letter to President Zuma, a man he has met many times, imploring him to listen to his people who are “terrorised and persecuted” and to truly tackle the country’s devastating […]

In the wake of the Luister video posted last week highlighting alleged inequalities of language and race at Stellenbosch University, and the subsequent clash between Elsenburg Agricultural College students and members of the Open Stellenbosch (OS) movement this week, there has been a flood of talk amongst the students about what’s being demanded and who […]

Today, incredibly, 1 Billion human beings connected with each other on Facebook. So says Mark Zuckerberg who, in his usual humble way, is as surprised as the next guy at how his social project has blossomed into a global phenomenon.* Human Beings. A billion of us. All magnificently, diversely unique. Connected. That is a magical […]

We all have our fears and the fear of personal injury must rank right up there for most of us – certainly for me. The greatest fear for me is to be confronted by my two paramount fears at the same time: the fear of personal injury and the fear of injury to my loved […]

Mandela Day is an opportunity to reflect on how we help each other to get on in life. Educational institutions play an important role in this regard. As Madiba said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” As far as universities are concerned, this mainly occurs through the […]

It dawned on me yesterday morning around 3 hours into the most boring “Game” drive of all time. I was doing brain exercises in order to ensure that I didn’t lose consciousness from the devastating cold and from the mind numbing nothingness of the experience, and in order to ensure that I didn’t slip away […]

I haven’t spent time in Cape Town for the past three years. Apart from the quick one or two day visits in December. And those ‘holiday’ visits don’t count because they’re smothered in family and vacation life. But on this latest trip I was extraordinarily blessed to fly down for work…and managed to get a sneaky day off on Monday. My one […]

Back in the day when I lived a relatively normal life, I ended up sat in one of those stiff, four-walled office interviews where the interviewer asked me — quite originally — where I saw myself in five years’ time. Bored by the question, I sat there rather straight-faced, stared out of the window and […]

It is said that if you live long enough, you will experience most things twice — my grandpa, poor man, had the misfortune to live through two World Wars. There’s another adage: if you keep something long enough, it will come back into fashion. Both of those apply to the new / old trend in our country […]

Every time I see yet another article from another South African moaning about the negativity of expats, and clearly writing with their rose-tinted glasses on, I get angry. Really angry. Hulk angry. The overwhelming theme of South African bloggers and writers lately seems to be the attack of the expat. How dare we leave South […]

Some of my best friends are expats. No, really. I’ve been through two waves of people leaving South Africa for various reasons, to the extent that I remember lying awake at night wondering who my future children would have as playmates. (I’m pleased to report that their social life has survived.) So now I have […]

I didn’t want to write this blog. Because it seems like whenever South Africans get into the discussion of whether to stay or whether to go it only creates armies on two sides. The “leavers” and the “stayers” – both defensive, both trying to justify their case. And that is not my intention at all. There […]

Twenty-one year old Busi Skinn’e Mjiyakho has caught a lot of people’s attention with her three letters to black people, white people and the South African government (all published below) which she posted on Facebook this weekend. So who is Busi? “I’m the future president of South Africa but for now I’m an (un)registered law student at […]

Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey. We walked into a Maccas (Mac Donalds) in Yanchep (a beautiful small coastal town about 15 minutes’ drive from Clarkson, where my family – the Venter Four – resides). The store manager (if I had to guess I would say he was Filipino) took my order, “What […]

Yoh! Just as I was coming to terms with the Stazi in Parliament and people in funny hats not being the 80s flashback I thought it was, on paying for my much cheaper diesel yesterday, I caught the lunchtime news. That chap Julius is a miracle worker. Seriously. Not only has he inadvertently united South […]

A South African woman came by my Swedish brother- and sister-in-law’s bakery in Billeberga, Sweden the other day, and mentioned that she’d heard of another South African (me) who was flitting about town. And as the story goes with most South African expats – she proceeded to make a case for why she and her husband […]

The news in South Africa over the last few months has dominated with a few headlines about the Oscar Trial, that weird EFF political party, some crazy ANC lady wanting the South African anthem broadcast twice a day and the new LandAct Law signed by Zuma a few months ago. I am not interested in […]

Believe it or not, as I was driving to work yesterday the topic of discussion was about the upcoming school year. In the Middle East we follow the American and British school terms so our school year starts in September, and over the next two weeks the majority of schools will be opening their doors…and […]

My husband and I have been living in Dubai for nearly seven years (me, a little bit less) and in this time we have found that there are four types of expats (especially South African expats) living in Dubai: the Expats Running Away, The Expats Using Dubai as a Springboard, the One Foot In and One Foot Out Expats […]

Ever since our trip to South Africa last year I have been feeling vaguely homesick. Is it homesickness, this wistful longing I have for South Africa? After all, South Africa is not my home nor has it been so for nearly two decades. Give it a couple of years and I’ll have lived in Sydney […]