I Love South Africa, and as an Ex-Pat i think I have the right to stick up for the country and it's people!!!
South Africa has struggle over the last 12 years or so to get rid of the Scary reputation that it had going, but I believe that any country that has coped so well with all the changes that have taken place in that time needs to be applauded. More people should listen to the good stories that come from South Africa and ignor the mostly over exaggerated horror stories. I mean come on, I hardly think that South Africa is any worse than any major country in the world for Violence, the UK and USA included!!!!
Okay thats my little rage over!!!
Please have more respect for our lovely country!!!!

PS I'm not an Ex-Pat because I wanna be, my parents emmigrated, and I was too young to argue. They couldn't exactly leave me behind now could they?

AM VERY SAD ABOUT CONNOR'S SPEACH.SO IT MEANS THAT'S WHAT U'VE BEEN POTRAYING ABOUT SA FOR A LONG TIME.LET ME TELL U ONE SINGLE AND STAINLESS TRUTH.WHO UNDER THIS EARTH IS MORE RACIST THAN THE WHITE AMERICAN?DON'T U READ HISTORY?DIDN'T U READ ABOUT HOW THE WHITE AMERICAN SUBJECTED THE BLACK TO UNHUMAN TREATMENT?AND DON'T U SEE RACISM ON THE STREETS OF AMERICA?ARE U BLIND?UR WORDS WERE LIKE A SWORD IN THE HEARTS OF ALL BLACKS OKAY.AM NOT A SOUTH AFRICAN BUT BET U MR. CONNOR,SOUTH AFRICA HAS WONDERFUL THINGS TO OFFER THIS WORLD OKAY.U SILLY WHITE AMERICAN,U ROBBED OUR FORE-FATHERS AND DENIED THEM ACCESS TO THIER OWN COUNTRY.TODAY U CALL US BARBARIANS.LOOK,WHY DON'T U GO BACK TO HISTORY AND STOP THIS NONSENSE.ARE U THE ONLY AMERICAN TO COME TO SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE COUNTRY TO PROSPER?U BETTER DO SOME HOMEWORK AND STOP TALKING FALASY.
OKAY,IF U WISH,I WILL INVITE U TO GHANA AND U'D SEE SOME MAGNIFICENT DIFFERENCE.JUST TEACHING U A LITTLE SENSE OKAY.DON'T BE OFFENDED.OH,SORRY U'RE UPPER-CLASS IN AMERICA.AM JUST 21 AND AM SUPER UPPER-CLASS HERE IN AFRICA.AND NEVER RACIST EITHER.I DON'T CARE ABOUT AGE,COLOR,NATIONALITY AND RELIGION.MUTUAL RESPECT,THATS ALL.

Hey Allan

"Unfortunatley it is in an expats best interest to portray SA in as negative a light as possible".....
I object to this kind of generalisiation. Some Ex Pats do their best to promo SA!

The knee-jerk reactions from South Africans to the originator of this thread are an indication of the mental state of the residents of that country. South Africa's murder rate is the highest or close to the highest in the world .

Some 27,000 people are murdered in incidents of violent crime annually , hundreds of thousands more are seriously injured . Very few of the culprits are ever brought to book .

Rape is the National Sport , 1 Rape is reported every 26 seconds YEP , you read that right , every 26 SECONDS .

These crimes get reported to undermanned and demotivated cops , 25% of whom are functionally Illiterate , YEP they cannot read or write. Another 25% are HIV positive .

On top of that , many serving Policemen are themselves being investigated (still on duty) for SERIOUS crimes.

Residents of South African suburbs live behind maximum security , steel bars on doors and windows , razor wire ,electric fences, attack dogs and armed response .

Oh and of course many have firearms as well.

Although I have traveled extensively never have I felt so threatened as in South African cities . Outside those cities was definitely better but still one had to be especialy wary.

South Africa has some beautifull tourist destinations BUT only has a pitiful 1.5 million tourists per year , that figure is inflated by Mozambiqueans, Zimbbweans etc. who come into SA as tourists and stay ilegally.

In essence it is a bloody dangerous place to visit , do so at your peril.

Capro , no one in the media has to "convince"me of anything . I have lived in SA for more than half of the last twenty years, I was there two months ago. I can see with my own eyes what the state of South Africa is.

I notice that your post is driven by pure emotion, a typical response from someone who would like things to be different but has not got a clue what to do about it.

My post was about South Africa not America OR ME.

The Crime/Rape/Women/Child abuse figures speak for themselves there is no need to go looking for "negatives"when the yearly deaths from crime and violence far exceed those killed in wars such as the Afghan invasion.

Perhaps you have some arguments to disprove my assertion that any country with one Rape (reported) per 26 seconds and 27,000 people murdered each year is an extremely dangerous place to travell in??

Perhaps you could ask the residents of ordinary South African suburbs , WHY they feel the need to own Guns ,Attack Dogs etc. and just WHY do they need electric fences?

Or maybe Capro this is all a figment of the Media's imagination?

Listen man.. get a grip on yourself.. Im a fellow south african.. yeh im white.. and im still alive , amazing i know.

If you really want to know what its like, buy a ticket and get your ass over here. Dont be such a nob, you may never get to experience any great countries buy sitting back in the old USA. Im 27 ,and Ive travelled the last 7 years. Germany, Egypt, USA, Mexico, Holland,Australia, United Kingdom, Hungray, Zurich and many other places.. and dude
if you want to find out what a place is about, then get your self over there and find out. Dont comment on other countries while you sit back in your warm cozy little house back in USA. That is truly pathetic... get some balls, and check it out yourself.

Its a wicked country, the only looser is you.

The only think I could think of while reading this message is feeling of shame. Shame from my fellow citizen here in the U.S. I apologize to every Black South African who read this thread. We have a simple saying here in the 80% Black-majority run city of Detroit. It is "Ain't Nobody Dumb"... While we have only a Million residents, we have this real sense of self worth and control. And while we are a minority on a national level, we are a majority on a city level. I believe I can speak for Detroiters when I say that we have no sympathy for any White South African in any position of power (like farming), who is a victim of crime. When there is a racial incident in Detroit, we respond very quickly. Even a single death by the hands of a person not Black causes extreme distress among all one million people. Even though most of the murders and crime against Blacks are by the hands of other Blacks, strangely we can accept that more so than from the hands of Whites. The point is, "Ain't Nobody Dumb" in the world. Think of things in it's simplest form and you will see that it is not easy at all to just accept poverty and injustice just because you removed the Devil from his thrown. The world knows without even being told that many people still remain in positions of power that make life very difficult for Black South Africans there. I would LOVE to visit someday. But it would break my heart to see poor South Africans in such a wealthy country.

Nate, what are you talking about... seeing poor people in a rich country. I think you have no idea how poor SA really is compared to the US.

I think you do still make some good points none the less.

Hi there I am an ex South African now living in Houston.I am going to South Arica in October,from what I have heard it is okay to go there but one must be alert.I have friends who still live there.and they say that there r still some problems interms of one's safety.I guess all countries have problems!
Take care!