Bye bye South Africa
What a 2 weeks. If you want to see a country in contrast then this is the place. Thanks go to many people who allowed me to see so many different things in this country. So what happened:
Cape Town
I started with 5 days in Cape Town and living the decadent lifestyle by the Waterfront in the Queen Victoria Hotel with some of the best staff I have ever met an in any hotel in the world, they sorted out faxes, they sorted out printing, they sorted out anything and everything. Nelson even used to walk me places so that I did not get lost…thank you. I did all the tourist things Table Mountain, Cape Point, Camp Bay, Robyn Island etc etc etc but also spent a morning at www.tsiba.org.za with people helping the next generation of poor black kids to have a chance, which was eye opening in many ways. Look at their site and you will understand.
Cape Town Ballet
Some how I got to the opening night of Spartacus and it appeared like I had gone back 50 years, everyone was white and almost all were very well dressed…the old regime was back….alas I had no bandana’s. By chance I sat next to one of the only black guys in the audience, he was not serving food or a cleaner. Turns out he was a sculptor and from Zimbabwe and very cool guy, I spent hours learning so much from him about the past and about Zim…ontop of that the ballet was awesome ( the first I had ever been to ). Here is one of Robin’s sculptors…if you want one contact him here http://www.houtbayharvestcentre.com/#!robin/cnk8
You look cool here matey:)
Sowetto
Johannesburg here we come and what a contrast. I went from the very rich areas of Cape Town to JoBurg ( the murder capital of the world ), JoBurg airport to Soweto and the townships at night. Just to mix it up a bit the guys I was with ( black guys from Soweto ) decided they would take me to a rave filled with 5000 black kids. I was trying to make on to them that I was ok, but I was cacking it:) Philani you really need to smile:):)
This picture below makes it look a lot nicer than I remember, it was definitely more grungy, but everyone was smiling and happy.
I met the owner next day and he was a great guy trying to see how else he could use the venue to help the community.
5 million people live in Soweto and almost all are coloured or black…even though apartheid finished over 20 years ago almost everyone still lives in areas dominated by the colour of their skin. There are few even vaguely areas of any wealth.
I should have never worried I stayed almost 3 days in Soweto and never saw any trouble and never felt hassled or bothered at all. The exact opposite actually, people were very very friendly and chatty. They took me to meet people in the community, schools and we chatted for ages about what had gone on, what was going on and what they thought the future would be like. The part that was strange was the trip to see Mandela’s house as that was the first time I came across more white people…..the area has become much more commercial with nicer restaurants and even some bars opening…but this is definitely not the Soweto I had seen.
Soweto has millions of people who seem to do nothing but sit on the streets, even though I never saw any drugs people told me it and alcohol was every where. I can imagine it …….it is a friendly place but people seem to have just decided that they will do nothing but wait for someone to help them. After apartheid the government promised the world to many of the people, a promise they could never keep up with….many people told me for all of the bad things about apartheid atleast they had jobs and could feed their families.
Central JoBurg
So into central JoBurg to meet some other people, these were the White’s, Indians, Coloured’s, Blacks, Jews etc who had worked out how to live in the new world and have become to some extent the privileged of South Africa. Many were from the old apartheid world, but also many were not, this was the new generation of hope. Basically imagine Sydney or any modern city and this is how it appeared.
In the evening I stayed with a lovely white family in one of the secure area’s of JoBurg. We talked for hours about their concerns about what would happen going forward, they expressed the same concerns as everyone else I met…could the social problems affecting the majority of the blacks and coloureds be sorted….At what point do the rich and educated leave and is it a self fulfilling situation …people get concerned about the rich/poor divide and the security issues…thus feeling threatened they leave and hence exasperated the issue.
Pretoria Townships (Atteridgeville )
So I arrived at my friends house in the Pretoria townships….he is big black, smiles a lot and is an ex drug dealer:) Hi gorgeous:) If you want to watch a video watch this
drug addict for 17 years
drug dealer living the drug dealer life, the good and the bad
robbery
mugger
prison
building communities for ex drug offenders
created numerous companies
Aged 37
A nice line he said to me:
I used to make myself smile by making money from other peoples tears. Now I make myself smile and make money from other peoples smiles:) Almost brings tears to your eyes.
So I was going to try and show him how to use some online growth hacking tracks to help grow his charity…..he is a quick learner and after me showing him he played all night.
Next morning we got up and went to one of the Community houses he helps support. Strange but they all had bandanas:):)
After listening to Moses give an inspirational speech and me hassling some guy for being a Chelsea fan:) We headed off to see some African animals
Pilansberg
What a great lodge:
Drive in the afternoon and sunset, then we got up at 5am to see animals in the morning. Alas we never saw any lions, but numerous elephants etc, 6 hours of driving elephants, zebra’s, giraffe’s, wild dogs, etc etc, we heard the hippos but did not see them, the lions hid from us:(
Sun City
After getting up at 5am to see the elephants we headed towards Sun City, a cross between Disney and Vegas. Odd odd odd.
Back to Pretoria
Back we went to the townships of Pretoria and to stay with Moses and his family. Shattered so we stayed in and did nothing. His kids had now got used to the white guy in the house so they decided they would play jokes on me and question me on anything and everything. Maybe my prejudices but I was surprised considering Moses’s background that the kid’s were so lovely, great fun and very smart…I told his 9 year old daughter she should be a politician and help the country. …go on girl:) His son liked messing and fooling round…obviously a grown up like me was not going to join in:):) As I realised in many South African families it really is the wives/mothers who keep everything work….Moses has worked this very well. Thank you to his wife for the great hospitallity.
Up we got and Moses in his wisdom decided to take me for a walk of 3 miles through the poor townships of Pretoria. Poverty is everywhere but also everyone was so friendly chatting laughing with me and the place is definitely a place of many smiles. But on the way back we went to see someone who I had met a couple of days ago and we found out that his sister had been murdered the day before…..My condolences.
To JoBurg airport we go and we have 3 kids in the car with us, all making as much noise as they can. Some sad good byes at the airport and I enter into an airport of white people and the luxury of BA flight, a A380 and my nice flat bed in first for the night ( I like BA airmiles they always come in handy to get nice flight when you need them )
Conclusion
Myself and Moses have been talking about creating some form of educational package so the skills I showed him he can use with the people in the townships.
South Africa is a beautiful country, with many lovely people. Everyone I met black, white, asian etc etc was very very friendly.
BUT the transition from apartheid has not been easy and there are huge divides in wealth and hope. The country is becoming more segregated but this time really due to disparities in wealth and belief and hope There are the old rich whites who begrudgingly have accepted the new world, there are the new rich white, there are the new rich black, there are the new rich coloureds and the new rich Indian’s. But the rich are more and more worrying about what is happening in the rest of the country and building higher and higher walls to keep the poor out, but the poor are the ones who wash their cars, clean their houses, do their gardens.
There are scatterings of poor white who seem to have integrated with the poor blacks and poor coloureds relatively easily.
If it starts to get more dangerous and killings start to be more based on race ( there have been several already ) then the educated ( the black educated are also worried ) will look at the options and they will move to Europe, US, Australia etc. Hence creating a massive vacuum of skill or knowledge that could easily see South Africa become a complete 3rd world country that could take years to recover. I hope that some how all the races realise this and work more and more to spread some of the wealth and education around.
I had a great time and met some great people, everyone wanted the same thing and for the country to be better. I hope this happens.
Thank you to everyone who made my trip so special.
Doug