April Fool's Day...a year later.

Last month Roger and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, but this weekend we crossed a much more impressive milestone, in my opinion. We have now been living in South Africa for one year, and if this isn’t your first visit to my blog, you know that it hasn’t exactly been easy. But here we are – a year later – and I’m not ready to pack up and move home just yet.

Despite the difficulties, living here has been good for us, and I’m proud to report that I’ve finally stopped questioning our decision to come to Johannesburg. Of course, I continue to question how much longer we should stay. But can you blame me? At the moment, the whole country seems to be going through the same crisis. I’m definitely not the only one thinking about leaving South Africa.

Lately, I hear more and more people talking about leaving. The conversations usually start in hushed tones, as a confession almost. “We’ve started having the discussion,” someone will say, usually after a glass of wine or two. That seems to be the code word – ‘discussion’ – referring to ominous conversations about the future of the country and whether or not it is safe to stay.

Now by ‘safe’ I don’t necessarily mean the likelihood of you being hacked up in your bed at night. Violent crime is always a concern here, but it’s certainly not the only one. No, I believe the heightened concern lately is a result of several factors: 1) Power and 2) Politics.

Now, I’ve mentioned the problem with power in previous posts, and as you know, we don’t have enough of it. The power company’s solution is a seven year “load shedding” plan. That means, until 2015, every residence and business in South Africa will have its power cut off for a scheduled section of the day (not that we are privy to the schedule). Now, I’m all for going green, but these power cuts are affecting people’s ability to make money. With fewer operating hours, companies aren’t able to produce as much product, which means they can’t afford (and don’t need) as many workers. Even in the small ad agency where I work, when the power goes out, there is nothing you can do. Deadlines are ignored; proposals postponed. Over the long term, every business will be affected. And as a consumer – well, I’d hate to be in the dentist chair when the lights go out, or having my hair highlighted. A friend of mine is looking to get Lasik surgery, but can’t find a clinic that has a back up generator (not a question I had to ask when I had my eyes done back in Atlanta). Once I was in the dressing room of a department store, and the power outage prevented me from buying the skirt that was on sale. In that instance, it saved me a few Rand, but how much money did it cost the department store?

And perhaps the overarching issue that the power cuts reveal is the problem with the still very present affirmative action system. Here it’s called BEE – Black Economic Empowerment. I hesitate to bring up a subject I know so little about, but I can’t overlook such a big part of why people are leaving. The thing is BEE, like affirmative action, is/was a necessary evil. In a country with a history of such extreme racial injustice, they had to balance things out somehow, right? But the power company is a glaring example of why BEE doesn’t always work. Because when you fire people who know what they are doing and replace them with people to fill a quota, things fall through the cracks. Entire power plants get shut down, and suddenly people living in a first world country can’t get power when they need it.

I hesitate to say all of this for fear that I am way off base. Maybe these are simply the misguided perceptions of my social circle. After all, most of what I know about the economic and political climate comes from word of mouth, and I’m not exactly surrounded by a very diverse group of mouths. That being said, because of the power crisis, the government has given a temporary BEE exemption to the power company. Currently, Eskom is able to hire whoever they want – regardless of race or ‘previously disadvantaged’ backgrounds. They are hunting for the best nuclear scientists that the world has to offer. You can imagine, though, why the best nuclear scientists the world has to offer may be slightly hesitant to go to work for Eskom. After all, once they get things back on track –who do you think will be getting the axe?

Of course another reason people are leaving is the country’s political climate, which seems to have been on a downward spiral since Mandela resigned. Once again, I’ll tread lightly because I don’t know much about South African politics. I do know this however – when I try to read the paper I get very bored very quickly because the front page alternates the same two stories daily: 1) Some politician is corrupt and may go to prison, and 2) Some woman/child/family has been raped/murdered/kidnapped. It’s always the same story. The details may vary, but the story is the same. Am I scared of the crime? Of course, I’d be stupid not to be. In this country it’s not if it happens to you but when, and I only pray I’m gone before my when arrives.

But as for government corruption, the story has gotten very old, very fast. And yet, South Africans continue to elect these questionable leaders. In December, Jacob Zuma was elected president of the African National Council, which means he is likely to be the next president of South Africa. Now Zuma used to work closely with the current president, Thabo Mbeki, but when he was linked to corruption – namely the rape of a young woman – Mbeki forced him to resign. It hasn’t seemed to affect his popularity though. Hell, even his comment in court that he wasn’t worried about contracting HIV from the girl because he showered after having sex with her hasn’t seemed to upset the members of the ANC party. And why should it? Just because we live on a continent where HIV is spreading faster that the common cold, why should we expect our leaders to be educated on the ways you can and cannot contract HIV? So what if the future president of South Africa thinks he has protected himself from HIV by taking a shower? And hey, even if Zuma were to contract HIV, the South African minister of health announced to the public that ginger and beetroot are the cure for AIDS, so what’s the problem?

But of course, there’s also the fear that Zuma might get ideas in his head like our neighbor to the north, Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe. Could it happen? Could the elected president of South Africa force selected people to surrender their land, their homes, their businesses? Would that be possible? Could it happen? Most people say no, not in South Africa. It could never happen here. Zuma knows the big corporations would pull out and the country would lose too much. But does he know that? Could it happen? Zimbabwe is proof that it’s possible. Just ask the starving people still living in the formerly wealthy country.

Wow. I’ve rambled on about things I know nothing about for far too long. But what does all of this mean for me? Should I be worried? Am I scared? Sometimes after lengthy conversations with people plotting their ‘escape’ from South Africa, I start to wonder if I was a fool to come here. But then Roger reminds me that because we’re American, we don’t have to escape. We can leave any time we like. We could move home tomorrow if we needed to (and Roger just might pack our bags himself if the power goes out while he’s watching soccer one more time!).

So no, I’m not scared. For the moment, I’m happy to be here, spending my days writing and exploring a new country. Of course, I say this after yet another long weekend spent with my husband down at the coast. And with my toes in the surf and the sun on my back, it’s hard to think about the power and the politics and the crime.

So maybe this year the joke’s on me, but the view from here looks pretty good.
For now, anyway.