One of the quietest wave of immigrants to reach Australia are the South Africans. In the main well-off, industrious, hard-working and determined to integrate after having escaped horrific crime rates in their homeland, the `sethefrican' accent is becoming more and more evident in all aspects of Gold Coast life. THEY say everyone has a doppelganger somewhere in the world. If the same theory applies to countries, chances are that Australia's double would be South Africa - goodness knows enough of them live Down Under - with the 2006 Census showing that there are 3872 South Africans who now call the Gold Coast home.
In fact, South Africans are the third largest immigrant population in our fair city - and one of the fastest growing.
Most South Africans who live in Australia say they moved here because it reminds them of home.
"Australia is the best South Africa on Earth." is how one of our Springbok brothers describes it - a quote that denies the very real cultural differences between the two countries.
Physically, South Africa is a similar land to our own, sunburnt country. It has spectacular stretches of coastline and sweeping plains. The vegetation and climate are similar.
'Sethefricans' generally like what we like - they surf, we surf. We BBQ, they BBQ, only they call it braai. We both love a beer - lots of beer. We're both former colonies, both of us have diverse populations that are a mix of black and white; both have cultures struggling to merge, both rich in natural resources.
Still, for all our similarities, South Africa is like the older brother we Aussies love to hate, the country we love to compete against - in rugby for instance.
The Springboks might have won the World Cup, but the Wallabies can't help but feel it was by default and the Kiwis believe it with a passion.
But South Africans are different to our close cousins across the ditch - coming as they do from a land blighted by horrendous crime rates and an uncertain political future. While the joke for a long time was that all the Kiwis had to do was get on a plane and get on the dole, South Africans who immigrate to Australia have often paid a heavy price. Many arrive on our shores after family or friends have fallen victim to crimes such as rape or murder, and once here are required quickly to become economically productive members of society or face deportation.
Stiff financial entry requirements mean that South African immigrants are often wealthy and are called the new boat people - they arrive here and the first thing they do is buy a boat.
Once would-be immigrants pass a points test on age, health and so on, they are required to bring in a large amount of capital - up to $500,000 - in addition either to buying or starting up a business that employs Australians.
They are often barred from taking paid employment. Finally they are required to pass an English test that wags say most Australians would struggle to pass'. "We don't have any problems with all that," says John du Rand, who has been here for six years. "It means the quality of immigrants is good and can help Australia and that is good for everyone."
South Africans tend not to form clubs or groups like former immigrants such as the Greek or Italian communities, so their impact is more difficult to gauge, but increasing numbers mean the flat vowels of ‘sethefrican’ are becoming more and more common on the Coast.
Sure, we both speak English, but the Saffies have invented a whole new way to twist every nuance of language. The Dutch influence has added a new dimension that Aussies will simply never be able to comprehend - we'd make fun of it if we understood it.
If there is one single factor that forces South Africans from their beautiful homeland it is crime. According to a survey for the period 1998-2000 compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, South Africa was ranked second in the world for assault and murder per capita, in addition to being ranked first for rapes per capita - amazing statistics for what is a relatively small country by world standards.
Every year, more than 22,000 are murdered, with hundreds of thousands more injured and brutalised So great is the carnage that the South African government has stopped issuing statistics because they simply add to the general depression with-out helping to find a solution.
Saffie’s come to Australia to escape while they are still alive and that is the crux of the difference between us. As one South African who now considered himself to be a proud Aussie supporter says, Saffies grow up under siege in a country where crime is rampant.
As far as Aussies are concerned, South Africans are also a little arrogant. Sorry, but it's true. They're aggressive, rude, bossy, and dismissive - wouldn't you be if you lived life under siege? The statistics speak for themselves. A serious crime is committed every 17 seconds in South Africa and Johannesburg is the epicentre of the crisis.
People live behind high brick walls topped with barbed wire or electrified wire - or both. Houses sport 'panic buttons' at strategic spots - buttons that are linked to an armed response unit that, once summoned, comes in guns out and ready to shoot.
It is not unusual for the bedrooms of houses to be sealed at night behind steel 'rape gates' double padlocked so that if anyone does break in, those inside are not surprised while asleep, because unfortunately in South Africa a great many break-ins end in mass rape and murder.
Even garages are turned into fortresses behind automatic steel gates. Owners drive in and out of their houses fast because most armed car-jackings take place in people's own driveways as they open their fortresses just a crack to get in and out.
Only last week, popular South African reggae singer Lucky Dube was murdered in an attempted car jacking, shot dead by car-jackcrs in front of his son and daughter. Aged 15 and 16, when he dropped them off at their uncle's home in Rosettenville, a suburb in southern Johannesburg.
Gold Coast-based author Jcnni Baxter, who co-wrote The Expat Confessions, got to the heart of why South Africans leave their beloved country - an act those who are left behind call doing the 'chicken run' - "Crime is just too bad. I didn't want my kids to grow up there and that's why I left and moved to the Gold Coast. I returned for a holiday a few years ago and our house was broken into while we were there.
"In South Africa the crime is totally out of hand.”It is a huge issue. Some South Africans won't like me saying it. There are always issues about the figures. The president says it is a 'perceived sense of crime' but there is no one in South Africa who doesn't know someone who has been murdered."
For some white South Africans, crime and how in their view the country has gone to the dogs since a black government took over five years ago, is a favourite topic of conversation. "There is a feeling of doom and gloom in South Africa. People are really depressed; they are fed up with the crime, so they move. Many of them resent being forced to leave the country because of the crime. I think that is why they find it so hard to integrate with the Australian society. Their blood boils that they can't stay in their own country."
There is the elephant in the room no one mentions when it comes to South African immigration - race. The fact is that many white South African immigrants see Australia as South Africa without a black majority and without crime, which is a reason many end up homesick and return home.
Australia did not have Apartheid - an Afrikaans world that literally means 'apartness' that described the separation of races in all spheres of life that South Africa adopted in 1948 as a way of' ’solving' the problems created by competition between races for scarce resources.
The many physical similarities between South Africa and Australia belie deep cultural differences. Australians have grown up with and adhere strongly to an egalitarian society, while South African society is not only stratified by race, but also by class especially within white society.
In South Africa it is vital to live on the 'right' side of town, attend the 'right' school and have the 'right' friends, and this attitude often results in severe cultural misunderstandings here.
Questions of race, identity and reconciliation are still common to both countries. Australia is in what Australian social researcher Hugh Mackay has called its 'age of redefinition'.
As a South African cultural commentator put it after a visit to Australia: "They often have to ask: `What is an Australian'?' They agonise over whether they should
remain a monarchy under the English queen. They grapple with immigration issues. They row over what fair treatment to and 'reconciliation' with Aborigines means.
Similarly, South Africans are engaged in a fevered debate about 'What is a South African?' and whether it is a matter of first Africans or South Africans first."
The issue of reconciliation and public apology remain the third rail of Australian politics.
For Gold Coast-based Fred Erickson-Miller, apartheid is the other, politically incorrect reason South Africans are leaving. "It's not a question of race. That's not the issue. Apartheid was never the answer. That was wrong. But the day Nelson Mandela was released and they handed all the power over to the blacks, we knew we had to get out while the going was good."
Mr Ericksen-Miller said the balance of power had tipped too far, swinging wildly in the other direction. Affirmative action policies ensure a black presence in every tier of business and government - whether the people chosen are qualified or not.
"What is happening now is just as wrong. It's called affirmative action but all it's doing it ruining the South African economy. "They don't know how to run a country. It's not a skill people are born with, it's something they have to learn. In South Africa, that learning process never happened. We just handed over the power and this is the result."
A perfect example is the recent questioning of a minister in the South African Parliament about the country's ballooning rate of car theft. He reportedly replied that car theft was good for the South African economy because the victims had to keep buying new cars.
Mr Ericksen-Millcr said the country appeared to be booming, with preparations under way for the soccer World Cup to be held in the country in 2010. "But no one knows where the money is going. It's not going into the local economy. More gravy for the gravy train, I expect." Mr Ericksen-Miller, who has been in Australia for almost two decades, operates Springbok Foods, ensuring Saffies get a little piece of home in the land of Oz.
He makes and sells all sorts of South African delights. "Some of the hardliners find it hard to adapt," says Mr Ericksen-Miller. "They see the change as losing their culture and try to bring South Africa with them. But the rest of us adapt. My son is an out-and-out Aussie."
Written by Robyn Wuth
Gold Coast Weekend Bulletin
27-28 Oct 2007
