Lekker Bubble

I am sitting on the upper deck of an Airbus A380 waiting to head back to the Northern Hemisphere. It’s been a lekker trip (Afrikaans for “great”). I would like to say that I stared danger in the eyes and that I survived the rough and tumble of Johannesburg, but in reality, I was put in an expat bubble and mollycoddled for the whole time being picked up from my luxurious hotel and driven between the EMC offices and client sites in an air conditioned Audi. I was even put back in my place abruptly and bundled into the car when I told one of my colleagues that I was happy to walk the 1 km back to my hotel from the restaurant last night. The most adventurous I was allowed to get was a 30 minute run in broad daylight at 7AM around the hotel grounds, although I was very happy when I managed to convince a colleague that it really would be ok if I took the airport express train from Sandton to the airport on my way out tonight (about a 15 minute journey).

Despite not seeing “real” life (or maybe that is as close to reality as a tourist will ever get), it was a fascinating experience. There were a number of key things that struck me. Firstly that Johannesburg is a fairly ugly and very spread out city; that South Africa seems in many respects to be a first world country with certain third world features such as poor infrastructure and awful potholed motorways (although some of the South Africans would see it the other way around); that it is unusual for me to see condoms being dispensed freely in the men’s toilets in a corporate office environment (Anglo American); that despite the end of apartheid in 1994, life is still tough and complete racial harmony or integration still has a way to go; and finally, that white middle aged males really are a threatened species – South Africa’s Affirmative Action or Black Empowerment (BE) policies really seem to stack the odds against them…. It was eye opening to think that one’s career can be so directly dictated by government policy – moving jobs for them is a risky business and opportunities are scarce as companies attempt to meet BE quotas.

Overall I think that despite the political climate, if we manage to get a few basic foundations in place, then there are huge opportunities in the country (and in Africa more generally for certain companies). The quality of the small team we have there, and the cutting edge work they are doing, were really impressive. I suspect I’ll be back there in the not too distant future. Lekker!