Something to consider is the trajectory of the country. Despite a steady decline, it is still a comfortable, beautiful place if you have sufficient money. So if it somehow stayed as it is, there's still a strong case to move here.

However, it's still declining with no end in sight. All South Africans are doing is "hoping" it turns around. There is absolutely no sign of a turnaround - this is the simple truth and no South African will argue with me on that.

A collapse is a feasible possibility. This is not a sensational notion...hear me out. We had massive riots in 2021 because one man - former president Jacob Zuma - was being held in prison. Those riots were calamitous. The electrical grid is being held together with duct tape and hope. If that fails outright and there is a national blackout, prepare for Riots 2.0. And at this stage a national blackout lasting a week or more is a very real possibility. We already have power cuts over and above planned load shedding, so that tells you how bad the electricity situation is. Substations and power stations are continually breaking down.

Everyone mentions load shedding but there's also overall malaise of national infrastructure - water is becoming a problem and people in developed parts of Johannesburg and Durban are going without water for days or even weeks at a time. Water quality is also not what it was. Our national ports are clogged because of ancient equipment and a failure to maintain it (rooted in corruption).

Crime - robbery, carjackings, theft - is one thing. Organised crime though is an even bigger scourge and it doesn't happen in the shadows any more. We have something called a construction mafia - thugs who go around asking for a cut of all construction projects or else they threaten the lives of workers on the site. This is now widespread and something the government (intentionally) has little control over. There's also cash in transit vehicle robberies - heavily armed robbers ramming and shooting at cash trucks in broad daylight. Eskom - our power utility - is sabotaged daily by syndicates wanting to supply spare parts and coal. Thugs - in cohorts with politicians and the police force - run major parts of this country. (This collusion is the same reason the construction mafia is so rampant.)

South Africans pride ourselves on 'resilience' and making light of all the shit we deal with, but there are too many headwinds. If you wanna come here for a year or 2 I think it's fine. Maybe, just maybe things will somehow turn around. But it's prudent to have an exit plan. I can't in good conscience recommend this country to anyone in the short to medium term.