Reflections on my first year as a citizen of lovely Cape Town

I CAME here from the UK to live permanently with my Capetonian wife a year ago and I have gone out of my way to observe and learn as much as I can.

When you live in another country it is essential to embrace the culture, society and environment rather than continually compare your previous life.

Firstly, Cape Town is a fantastic and fascinating city and richly deserves its place as one of the most desirable tourist destinations, yet it has so much more to offer than just catering for tourists. I love the sights, the diversity of shops and restaurants and I have completely immersed myself in the quite amazing history of CT and SA.

A trip to District Six Museum and Robben Island should be compulsory for all schoolchildren, in the same way that it is crucial for UK children to learn about the effects on their country of World War II.

The love and passion for sport has surprised me, especially coming from a country that adores sport and its participants. At least the Proteas left the Cricket World Cup with their heads held high, while my home country left with an embarrassing whimper.

So what haven’t I liked? The road infrastructure in and out of CT is a mess and for a journey that can take anything from 15 to 90 minutes, dependent upon the time of day, it is shocking.

I see that students here, as in other parts of the world, forget that they are blessed with having institutions and skilled tutors who can help forge their futures. All they have to do is work and earn that future. There is no degree for throwing substances at statues or taking part in protests as far as I am aware. It is also a concern that SA appears to be low, if not bottom of the league table with surrounding countries, with regards to educational results.

Crime is a serious problem, which I underestimated, but I am learning fast about alarm systems, burglar bars, smash-and-grabs and the like.

The behaviour of politicians of all parties at the president’s State of the Nation address in CT appalled me. This would never happen in the UK and, irrespective of beliefs, there should be respect for the president on such occasions, using proper channels only to air one’s views.

Then we come to the aspect that I abhor the most – load shedding – which I believe is a national disgrace, and both Eskom and the government should hang their heads in shame.

No one needs me to set out the problems it brings. Our most recent worst experience was three evenings out of four with no power between 8pm and 10.30pm. How can that be equitable?

Last year, an executive for Eskom was reported in this newspaper as saying that SA’s electricity was half the price of most of Europe. That has to be one of the most facile comments I have ever read. A loaf of bread here is half the price of most of Europe, but wages and salaries are less than half of most of Europe too.

About 40 years ago, the UK had similar problems and we experienced outages that were so bad that schools had to close for up to one day a week, as did businesses. We solved it quite easily actually. We stopped having one stateowned supplier of electricity and opened it up to private companies, giving the people the choice of which supplier they wanted.

Guess what? There have been no power cuts since, other than those caused through extreme weather conditions, and prices are more competitive.

Why has this not been done in SA? Is it because some people within Eskom, its suppliers and/or the government do not want this to happen for reasons to which we can only apply conjecture?

On top of all of this, it is noted that Eskom has applied for an increase of 25.3 percent in its prices to the public – quite remarkable!

So this year has had its ups and downs for me as I have wrestled with questions such as “Did I make the right decision?” and “Will I stay?”.

The answer to both is a resounding “Yes” – because of the extraordinary people I have met and continue to meet on a daily basis, people of all ages, of all colours and backgrounds doing all kinds of jobs who simply astound me with their friendliness.

Working in a high-pressure environment in the City of London for almost 15 years has taught me to value such things.

My message to the politicians and corporations of CT and SA is that I doubt you realise your greatest asset is these beautiful people.

My overriding view is that they deserve better.