Ved
Crime is the biggest single reason. The economy does not play a major part - the GDP you mention is for the entire country, while whites have a much higher GDP - however affirmative action caused many whites to lose their jobs and struggle to find jobs. While I support affirmative action in principle, the way the government is doing it is just a reversed form of apartheid.
I do believe we will keep what you correctly call our relative prosperity (for one thing, we have a brilliant minister of finance) Our democracy is young, but surviving and the strongest in Africa, but there are threats.
As for Mugabe, don't get me started! 90% of our people (black and white) strongly disagree with our government's support of Mugabe. There are two million Zimbabweans living in SA now because of that man (and I use the term loosely). They want to go back, but can't, and Mbeki just keeps his eyes closed to the misery of the people of Zim
BTW forgot about Canada being a popular destination for emigrants earlier - mainly doctors seem to go there
Andre,
I studied at UKZN in Maritzburg =). And nearly fell off a ledge while in the Drakensberg, mind you. I agree somewhat with teh last outpost sentiment, anytime i walked through the downtown, i could see vestiges of british colonial culture. And don't get me started on littel places like Hilton.
Bloem, eh? Pretty place. Nice uni there, too =).
I definitely saw the same sentiment expressed by a lot of white South Africans while I was there in regard to affirmative action, the principle of allowing the majority population of the country, the chance to gain footholds and positions in the marketplace is laudable, but it does come at a high cost for the many employed whites. I had three friends that were going to the US to work for a year.
Tyrone
Yeh and the thing is, they're getting rid of experienced people, replacing them with inexperienced, at a cost to everyone. But then, I have to admit it is a difficult thing, redressing the injustices of the past.
It is not always easy to be South African!! But I do love my country.
Ah, you went to the Drakensberg! Going there tomorrow. One of the most beautiful parts of SA!! (for the sake of everyone else, the name means Dragon's Mountain)
BTW Tyrone would like to know more about how you experienced SA
Andre, I'd love to talk about it. =)
I spent part of my final undergraduate year of university at UKZN, but traveled all over the country--Cape Town, stopover in Bloem, Drakensberg, St. Lucia, Jo'burg, Hluhluwe--lots of places.
I had an amazing time, and I can't believe I went. It was a thousand things at once, and amazing to watch a country struggle to realize an idea of freedom and democracy. There's a lot of hope there in the midst of pain, and a lot of beauty and pride and multiculturalism.
I'd love to live there.
Heh, it's so inadequate to put the experience into words, i guess. =)
Andre,
Which is the most widely spoken native African language in South Africa and are there many whites who speak it? Do you speak any native African language or can you understand one of them?
I'd assume it would be Zulu, which has a significant number of white speakers in KZN, the traditional homeland of the Zulu people.
I think it's Xhosa and Zulu, but I might well be mistaken. These two are the most well-known to Westerners, I'd say.
If I'm not mistaken, Nelson Mandela is Xhosa, which led to quite a bit of inflammatory speech from Chief Buthelezi and the IFP in the Zulu heartlands when Mandela got elected in 1994.
Jordi
Tyrone and Ved are both right. Zulu is the single largest language in the country (mother tongue), but spoken mainly in KZN. Xhosa is the second biggest, spoken mainly in the Eastern Cape, but also in the Western Cape. Afrikaans is the third largest language (English fifth). However, the African languages are all basically restricted to regions, whereas Afrikaans and English are spoken all over the country. Afrikaans is the largest language in terms of the number of people who can speak and understand it (including second or third language), with English in a close second place. There are many whites who can speak African languages, especially in the rural areas, although the majority cannot. Read about a white guy the other day who speaks all eleven official languages. To my shame, I have to admit I don't speak an African language
Mandela is indeed a Xhosa, and so is Mbeki. The Zulus and the Xhosas have been fierce enemies for centuries, which was one of the problems we had to overcome after 1994.
How heavily influenced are the Standard forms of Zulu and Xhosa by Afrikaans and English? I would also like to know if you use Zulu and Xhosa words in your Afrikaans and English.
To respond to Jordi's comment, I'd say everyone uses "yebo," at least in KZN, the zulu word for yes. =)
I'd blame that on vodacom, the phone company, and their ubiquitous "yebo gogo" ads that featured a smiling, elderly African gentleman calling his wife. ("yebo gogo" means "yes, grandmother").
I took zulu for a short time, and learned workds like "ipipi" (pipe) and another close cognate for paper (it was somethign like "iphapi").
Tyrone
Yes, "yebo gogo" has become part of both afrikaans and english thanks to that commercial :)
Jondi
All African languages have been influenced by Afrikaans and English, especially with regards to modern terms, since these languages haven't really been developed to adapt to today. We have also taken a number of words from the African languages, such as indaba (zulu for meeting)
speaking of languages influencing others, the word trek in Star Trek (the TV series) comes from Afrikaans