Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

I am trying to gather as much information as possible.
My partner was born in Zimbabwe and moved to the UK 20 years ago where upon he has become a successful mechanical engineer. He has a British passport but as stated was born in Zimbabwe. We are seriously looking to up sticks but kniw very little and have a few things to consider.
I am Brisitsh and have three children of my own. My ex partner has agreed to me moving the children and we have a very amicable relationship.
My partner and I are getting married this August 2017. Therefore will be married.
Have been looking through various jobs available. But it's like a mine field.
Where do we even start.?? If anybody can point us in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

Re: Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

Response was for moving to Zimbabwe and OP is moving to South Africa?

Re: Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

Unemployment is high in S. Africa. I would not go unless you have a secure job to go to. Also consider education for your kids and their future based on S.A. education unless you can afford to pay for public schools.

Re: Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

The Zimbabwe connection won't help at all. You need an SA visa (either PR or a work permit). You won't be able to get either without a firm job offer before you go, if you turn up on a tourist visa (valid for 3 months) then finding a job, and someone to support / sponsor you will be practically impossible given the high unemployment rate.

Also, traveling with kids into SA without one of the parents has been difficult recently. There are new visa rules which mean you need a letter of permission from the other parent and unabridged birth certificates for each child otherwise you won't even board the plane.

Sounds like this will be difficult. Sorry to be the bearer of negative news but I think this will be a struggle. Good luck.

Re: Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

I’ve been working in South Africa since January this year and came over on the 11/2 visa and just completed the Critical Skills Visa application last month.

The CS Visa is pretty involved and I imagine will not be a particularly cheap visa to process if funding it yourself.

If your only experience of working, is in the UK, with UK rates of pay and general cost of living, I highly suspect that you’d get a bit of a shock being paid local rates with local prices.

I’m fortunate that I’m here on an expat package and most of my expenses are taken care of by the company.

It’s fair to say that rental prices may be better value than in the UK but you’ll likely be very surprised at most items being far more expensive that in the UK.

Online cost of living comparison sites suggest it’s 68% cheaper to live in Johannesburg (I’m living in Sandton) but I’m not exactly sure how they make those calculations, as pretty much everything I buy is significantly more expensive than what I’d pay back home in Scotland.

For me, the positives are excellent quality of food at a very reasonable cost.

It won’t necessarily be cheaper than the UK but for the money it will normally be a far superior meal.

The climate is pretty good – right now it’s like a very pleasant Spring-time back home. But this is the winter.

The negatives are fairly well known but it doesn’t take you long to adapt to not walking in the streets, particularly after dark.

A car that you could buy for around £500 back home will likely be around £2000 and have far more miles on it.

Be prepared for sticker shock with the price of vehicles.

I’d say they are generally double the UK price. My own car in the UK is about 3-4 times the cost here…based on local online adverts.

I’m sure you could get by over here on a minimal amount of money, depends on what your personal goals are.

Re: Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

I grew up in South Africa, I have a few recommendations for you:


Look to live in Cape Town, Pretoria, or Bloemfontein. Johannesburg is the biggest city, with the highest paying jobs, but its the most dangerous place by far, and the schools are of a lesser quality. If you must live in Johannesburg, you'll want to live in the Northern Suburbs or the East Rand. Durban is beautiful, but unless you're very rich and can afford to live in a highly secured estate in Umhlanga, it isn't safe.


A mechanical engineer shouldn't have a hard time finding a job, but if you're in a more common field it will be difficult, even if you're the best qualified of the other candidates, firms with more than 50 employees are obliged to consider black candidates first, coloured (multiracial) candidates second, Asian candidates third and then white candidates. By all accounts my family is white, but my maternal great-grandmother was a Cape Coloured woman, which allows my siblings to call themselves coloured for legal purposes, and that's the only reason that they've been able to maintain jobs and remain in South Africa.


Make sure your children go to former Model C schools. Model C schools are schools that were reserved for whites during apartheid, but they're now open to all. These schools are the schools that have been maintained over the years, and they tend to have more involved communities that cover the schools funding gaps. However, regardless of your native language, unless you can afford school fees, or are planning to be a member of a Roman Catholic parish, I would suggest sending your children to Afrikaans medium state schools, and not English medium state schools. The classes are smaller, the community is much more involved and all-in-all the quality is higher.


I was born in Johannesburg, my family moved to Cape Town in 2000 when I was 11 years old and my wife is from Bloemfontein. Her and I moved to the UK in 2011 and we visit the country at least twice per year.

Re: Contemplating moving to South Africa
 

Learning Afrikaans is surprisingly easy. Go for it !