As an extremely hard working 70 plus years old South African who had high hopes for the future Rainbow Nation, which never happened and never will happen under ANC rule! I, my partner and many other South Africans I am sure, who are unfortunately members of the minority in our country, now have to ask the hard question – IS IT WORTH IT TO HANG ON IN THIS COUNTRY OR WILL LIFE BE BETTER ELSEWHERE?

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Many retired people or those in their over 70’s who are still working to keep their heads above water in the face of the never ending spectre of loadshedding and other threats to theirs and their families’ livelihoods are becoming fearful about whether they and their families can make it.

My family has just come out of 6 hours of loadshedding, followed by 16 hours of blackout, with no explanation from ESKOM about why the latter occurred. Our small business spent six thousand Rand in January; mostly poured down a hole on petrol for our generator, just to keep our business running.

black and silver solar panels
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We as an international business with customers all over the world; dubbed “DIGITAL NOMADS” as we can work anywhere on the planet; have to ask ourselves – WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

People are now seriously considering selling their houses; including their hard won appliances and possessions and buying a ticket to somewhere else in the world where it is much safer, more pet friendly, the power supply is guaranteed, there is law and order, and they can grow their businesses in peace and harmony; and where the cost of living is much cheaper than here in South Africa.

man in white sweater sitting on white leather chair
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The picture in people’s minds of jumping on a plane with just a couple of bags and leaving all the chaos and anguish behind is becoming more and more alluring every day. … AND WOOPEE DOO – THEY WILL NEVER AGAIN HAVE TO HEAR THE WORDS – DEAR FELLOW SOUTH AFRICANS ... – knowing full well that what will follow is just a bunch of B …. S … T that vainly attempts to cover up the government’s attempt to disguise all the theft and criminal activity and living it up on our hard earned money, stolen from us; the taxpayers.

However a bright spot on our horizon was a meeting we attended in Agulhas where the leader of the DA John Steenhuizen addressed a gathering of mostly DA supporters on the future prospects for our country; ahead of the 2024 general elections. He presented a most inspiring speech wherein he complimented the Agulhas and Struisbaai municipality on their winning the award for best municipality in the country. He also praised the lifestyle and progress in the area. He went into some detail on what the DA policy was all about and about how nationwide, the party continues to strive for improvement in livelihoods and environments despite the general DON’T CARE ATTITUDE shown by the ANC government. At question time I asked how the DA intends to break the power wielded by the government using cadre deployment.

His answer was encouraging as he spoke about the strenuous efforts the DA has been making in pointing out the grievous flaws and weaknesses in the cadre deployment policy and it was extremely gratifying to hear that amazingly, members of the top echelon of the ANC admitted the faults in the policy and cooperated in drafting amendments to the constitution that would result in prosecution of anyone who practised the policy in the future. Wow! – I wasn’t expecting that one! Perhaps the ANC is actually beginning to realise that the bulk of the electorate is fast losing faith in the ruling party’s ability to meet the public’s needs; and that they had better make some radical changes before it’s too late.

The other thing that happened to us this week was the realisation that we as owners of the proofreading and editing business Busy Bee Editing are truly Digital Nomads. A Digital Nomad is a person or persons who run an organisation that operates only digitally. A digital nomad only needs a laptop and a strong internet signal to run his or her business; thus they can operate anywhere on the planet. Digital nomads are beneficial for the country they are in because they bring income to local business owners, by spending money in the country on transport, food, accommodation and so on. They are also self financed and therefore do not place a burden on local health services and the like.

Thus many countries are keen to give visas to such nomads for periods such as a year or longer; sometimes without even requiring the business to pay taxes. We can operate our business in all sorts of countries we would like to explore while at the same time giving excellent service to the publishers, students, graduates and businesses that form our customer base; while still maintaining our permanent home in South Africa. I think that’s good news for all concerned – don’t you agree?

We would like to reassure all our loyal customers in South Africa that we will continue to provide excellent proofreading and editing services to them as they will always be our top priority, as they are and will continue to be the foundation of our business.

The outcome from all the soul searching, research and discussing options with friends we have been doing has brought us to the conclusion that we will hang on in SA for the time being; keep close tabs on the news media and try to survive loadshedding etc as best we can for now. We all need to keep our fingers crossed for things to improve – and if you can afford it – BUY SOLAR PANELS!

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