You've left the country, now shut up!

A friend of mine is visiting from London. She moved there a little over a year ago after marrying a Brit, so she wasn't one of those people that packed for Piccadilly leaving behind a horrible life here. You know what these types describe South Africa as: a forsaken country wracked by high crime, high anxiety, poor education standards, poor infrastructure, poor air-conditioning and generally poor people.

She is obviously an exception to the rule and continues to celebrate her home country at every given opportunity, debunking some of the negative stereotypes so frequently trotted out by the expatriate 'communities' (how I hate that word).

But be that as it may there are thousands of South Africans who voluntarily move to seemingly greener pastures and then spend every waking moment obsessively monitoring events in their former homeland and talking crap about their aforementioned former homeland.

My biggest bugbear is that you head overseas with your undergraduate degree in, say, teaching - which was paid for largely by the South African taxpayer (and don’t for a minute think that you paid for it because it actually costs a lot more than you pay to put someone through university - it is highly subsidised). My feeling is that if you hate it here so much don’t wait to get your degree here, rather leave straight out of Grade 9 and go wherever you want and spend the rest of your adult life paying off that very expensive private education in America, Australia or wherever you want to go.

Just do me a favour and stop hating on us.

Stop taking to social media and acting like political commentators and experts when in fact you are scrubbing toilets at the Manchester United Football Club.

Look I’m not saying that things are hunky dory here. You know me, I walk around with my eyes wide open and I call out failings of service delivery whenever I see it. I name and shame serial malingerers wherever they snooze. I am very vocal about everything that’s wrong with the country. But I have a right to be. I live, work and contribute to the South African economy and its rapidly depleting purse. I didn’t opt to get going the moment the going got tough.  So it irritates me to no end when I’m confronted by postings from afar that seem designed to inform us about things we are actually living. I fail to see the need to do this but I can’t help but wonder if it is some sick self-justification - you know what I mean, to vindicate the shitty life you are living in a small boxy apartment, where it’s cold and dank and the hours are long - it might help you believe that people in South Africa, despite the sunshine, open space, the sand under your feet and waves crashing on golden beaches, are having a really tough time. 

So yes, electricity supply is an obvious current problem. Or is it an obvious problem of current? I hate load shedding. It’s as archaic as when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It’s affecting the economy to the extent that jobs are on the line. I spoke to a friend of mine in the restaurant trade just yesterday and he told me about putting his staff on short time and shutting his doors by 8 o’ clock when he should be doing a roaring trade at his prime time. 

My friend who has a clothing shop has to close the doors every time the lights go off - which is at anyone’s guess. The point I am making is; this is our reality and I will complain about it. I will raise a dissenting voice and hope that something will be done. What I don’t understand is how you in Europe with your hydroelectric power and wind turbines pointing out the obvious are making a difference to my reality, except to piss me off even more.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not envy. I don’t want to be where you are. I just don’t want to have to encounter your diatribe about something you’re no longer involved in every time I page through media. There are whingers around the world who have left South Africa, built themselves little enclaves of ex-South African whingers, eating their imported Black Cat Peanut Butter, drinking Ricoffy and who have the time in between mouthfuls to mouth off about our country.

For me these squawkers would be better served if they applied their bought and paid for South African skills to something more constructive. Perhaps you could come back and work and be part of the solution. Don’t just sit and run the country down. 

So, even before thinking of something so extreme why don’t you just stop being so racist in your rants. You might actually be taken seriously. The other day I read post about how the descent all started when “they” took over. Who exactly is this mysterious “they”? I’d like to know.

Maybe the country is in a state of disrepair because of one man’s failings, but why should the whole country be maligned for this? 

The fact is, you have chosen to live abroad - good for you. But then I don’t want to hear your rants. 

Save it for people who care! 

You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @terencepillay1.