PRETORIA. Various organisations trying to lure young white professionals back to South Africa say they are seeing thousands of whites coming back to the country. "Mostly it's because they forgot to switch off the oven before they left," said a spokesman. "Others remember they didn't leave out chunks for the cat. And quite a few have come to fetch their maid."
Estimates of how many whites have left South Africa since the 1990s range from 500,000 to one million, excluding the 8,000 in the Free State and the Northern Cape who emigrated to the 18th Century.
Antjie Sousboontjie, the spokesperson for Kom Asseblief Huis Toe Julle, an NGO trying to lure whites back to South Africa, admits that those 8,000 are "pretty much gone for good".
"But we're still hopeful that the hundreds of thousands in the UK and elsewhere will come home."
Sousboontjie said that Kom Asseblief Huis Toe Julle and similar organisations were working tirelessly to persuade expatriate whites to return to the South Africa to help boost skills, create employment opportunities and increase tax revenue.
"And most importantly, to make those of us who were left behind feel less scared and alone," she added.
She said that her organisation was seeing a spike in the number of returning whites.
"It's definitely turned from a trickle into a bit of a flood.
"As they settle into their lives and get over initial chaos of the move, they start thinking about what they've left behind.
"And that's mostly when they remember that they've left the stove on."
She said that her office got up to 500 calls a month from white expatriates in London and New York asking to be put in touch with the local fire department and animal rescue services.
However, she said, most callers ultimately came back to sort out the crises themselves.
"We've had quite a few coming back to let the cat out or feed the dachshund. Obviously it's usually too late. Just cockroaches and little skeletons wearing collars."
But she said some stories had happy endings.
"One young man from Shepherd's Bush in London remembered last month that he'd forgotten to pick his gran up from the physiotherapist in Joburg.
"She'd been waiting in the heated pool since 2001, and pretty much all the flesh had boiled off her. It was gross, but quite emotional when they recognised each other."
Sousboontjie says she has also seen a growing trend of expatriates returning to fetch their maids and gardeners.
"There have been some beautiful reunions, tearful young white people embracing Gladys and Elliot or Precious and Wiseman, and begging them to come back to London with them.
"A lot of these young people have grown up with maids and gardeners. They just don't know how to cope, so you've got four years of unwashed dishes, un-ironed clothes, and a window-box full of weeds and cigarette stubs."
She admitted that a return of "two or three days or however long it takes to bury the cat and track down Precious and Wiseman" was probably not having a major impact on job creation and the sharing of skills, but she remains optimistic.
"We must have hope. God knows, it's all we've got. Hope, and empty duplexes for sale next door."
Source: www.hayibo.com
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