I just came back from visiting a South African in-law who recently fled to New Zealand. Apparently the mindset amongst many non-Bantu South Africans is "Will the last person leaving South Africa, please turn out the lights?". Supposably in the last few years there has been a huge increase in the number of university educated, professional South Africans fleeing the country. Areas with significant increases in South African expatriates are New Zealand, Perth (Australia), London and Miami (Florida). The main reasons for the mass exodus are intolerable crime levels in South Africa and recent events in Zimbabwe.

A hot gossip item among expatriate South Africans was Moeletsi Mbeki's comment that "Africa was better off during the colonial era" (see: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/moel4.11664.html). Moeletsi Mbeki is South African President Thabo Mbeki's brother. Supposably the South African expatriate community has expressed some surprise that the Main Stream Media (MSM) generally ignored Moeletsi Mbeki's comment (par for the course, IMHO). Looks like South Africa is poised to implode and become just another black African country. Tough deal for the country that was once Africa's economic locomotive.

A travel tip for South African expatriates. If you have a second passport, do NOT use your South African passport for travel. Apparently there is an Al Qaeda cell operating in the Capetown area that is handing out passports to terrorist operatives.

Gary