SA Rocks

The last time I voted was in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape in 2004 so it’ll be incredibly exciting to be queuing in London.

I came to the UK after struggling to find work back home but would like to go back sometime.

That’s why I think it’s so important that I’m allowed to vote even though I’m not in the country at the moment.

We’re going to be electing a government who’re going to serve for the next five years and in that time I may return so why shouldn’t I be able to choose who I’d like to govern?

For me there’s a lot riding on the result and especially in the direction that the country’s going to go.

I have so much hope for South Africa and miss my family a lot who’re all still living in Durban. Of course being in England the thing I miss the most is the sunshine.

– JANELLE SCRIMGEOUR

The above and a few more views are shown in a BBC article about voting abroad that is taking place.

Popularity: 10% [?]

After much bitching and moaning, much torment, badmouthing and ragging of the SA government, a mere 16 240 voters registered to vote abroad for the 2009 elections.

Let’s see the breakdown shall we:

London with 7 472
Canberra, Australia with 1 235
Dubai, United Arab Emirates with 900
Wellington, New Zealand with 410
The Hague, Netherlands with 378
Dublin, Ireland with 360

Wow. Here’s a small fact for you: There are estimated to be over 600 000 South African expats living abroad in LONDON ALONE. Of those ± 600 000 an embarrassing 7472 registered to vote. That is a shocking 1.24% of the expat population in London that bothered to register or apply to vote abroad in the upcoming elections.

I hate to take a rough stand here, but I want the names of the 7472 voters that registered in London because they are the only people living in the UK from SA that I ever want to hear talk about South Africa in a good or bad light. Either make your way back here so that voting isn’t “such a mission” for you over there, or just let go of SA.

As for the rest of the expat population, shame on you. Or Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.

Thank you to the ± 16 000 people who registered to vote abroad, now just be sure to get that vote in, every vote counts.

According to the IEC, South Africans voting at missions abroad must produce both their South African green bar-coded identity document or valid temporary identity certificate as well as their passport when they vote.

“Without these documents, voting will not be permitted. At the mission, they will also be required to complete an application form for a special vote, called a VEC 1 form.

“Voting stations at South African missions abroad will be open from 7am until 7pm,” the IEC said.

Voting times on 20 and 21 April in South Africa will be from 9am until 5pm.

Be sure to remember to take all the necessary documents to avoid disappointment.

Popularity: 12% [?]

This seems to be a trustworthy document that appears to be for South African’s wishing to vote abroad.

So what you’ll need to do is the following:

1. See if you qualify to vote abroad by visiting the IEC website.
To be eligible to vote there is one major prerequisite: You need to already be registered as a voter.

2. Download this form. <- click on the text to start download.

3. Fill in the form.

4. Send it off to the IEC BEFORE FEBRUARY 27th 2009 – THIS IS EXTREMELY NB. YOU HAVE 4 DAYS TO COMPLETE THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY.

5. You will then be eligible to vote at your nearest mission according to the IEC website. This, in my opinion, means your nearest embassy. But for more info about your nearest SA mission download THIS FORM <- click the link to download the list.

6. Vote on April 15th 2009.

I’m not particularly impressed with the deadlines put in place. Let’s hope this all works out for the best. If you are abroad and reading this please email these steps on to your friends, post the link to this post on your Facebook status, tweet these links and call someone to let them know. Just spread the word and be as proactive as possible.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I read an article at M&G Online this weekend that says that according to Moving companies, real estate agents and nonprofit groups more white South Africans in their late 20s who are abroad are coming back to SA.

Now obviously it would be easy for me to say I can believe this and slot it in to the SA Rocks apparel as proof. But I can’t just do that. Let’s be honest, everyone here seems to be talking about leaving.

So my question is this, what have you heard? Are you noticing more people wanting to leave, talking about leaving or doing it? Me being “The SA Rocks Guy” makes it tough to go out with family, friends, colleagues or aquantances and not talk about leaving SA, am I staying, why and the rest of that discussion. So I hear it alot but are people around you talking about it?

Here’s a snippet from the M&G Online article:

Moving companies, real estate agents and nonprofit groups say more and more white South Africans in their late 20s and beyond are returning to South Africa. Hungry for their own culture, eager to raise children near their own families, and encouraged by their country’s economic potential, these adults are leaving their successful careers abroad for an uncertain future at home.

“We’ve been happy and enjoying ourselves ever since the day we’ve been back,” said Prins, who moved to Johannesburg last October. “I felt like my quality of life improved dramatically.”

Prins and her boyfriend Mark Kirkness, a civil engineer, may not have made the decision to come home if weren’t for the Homecoming Revolution, one of several South African organisations dedicated to persuading expatriates to come back. Kirkness received a job offer after attending a career fair put on by the group, which also provides candid information about the South African economy, security conditions and crime, and hosts networking dinners and other events for those who have returned.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Talk about bad timing. It seems as though Afrihost just can’t handle SA Rocks on their servers. I’m not sure why that is as I personally don’t think that SA Rocks can possibly be toppling servers just yet. We are on the way, but not just yet.

I have had this debate a thousand times with a hundred people on many blogs. But is it viable to host a “successful” blog or website locally?

I am beginning to think not. Inspite of Gian at Afrihost trying exceptionally hard to please local websites and blogs I think that I need to take a stand right now and say that the last three weeks of hosting with them has been filled with difficulty.

A while back SA Rocks begin to flourish and local servers at Afrihost couldn’t handle the pressure. So I was moved to an international server and told that I would have access to unlimited bandwidth with my current package. Then earlier this month I was having serious downtime due to SA Rocks putting pressure on that server. I was then moved to another server (more downtime) and told that the problem was rectified. Then today I see a lovely image, something about bandwidth, usage, exceeding, blah, blah, more downtime.

Afrihost have been incredibly accommodating, helpful and resolute in their approach to me, SA Rocks and the business I give them. Yet at some point a good attitude cannot replace a good product.

For me a good hosting product offers me little downtime and a lot of stability. I have had too much of one and not enough of the other from Afrihost.

I will not be moving my site away from Afrihost, I believe that they can and will get things right, but it needs to be said, product is more important to me than service. I need your product to work.

I am not going to mention the 100% uptime promise that Afrihost offers because that doesn’t really factor in to this. What I am going to say is that I expect 100% uptime, not 100% good service.

Maybe hosting abroad makes more sense; it’s cheaper, more reliable and will more than likely give me less gray hairs.

But for now, I’m sticking with Afrihost. Gian can thank the great customer service that his team provided me in the last 3 weeks.

Popularity: 5% [?]