I am busy exploring a new business venture.

The basic idea is to ship raw materials from Europe to Africa for processing. There after, for the processed product to be exported again. It should be a simple process or so I thought this would be.

As the raw product is agricultural, I have to deal with the Department of Agriculture.

I wanted to do this project in South Africa. This is home. This has however shown to be very challenging.
I have made numerous calls to different people who have all proven to be extremely unhelpful.

The answers I got have ranged from:  "Eish, I don't know" to "I truly could not care about what you do". The indifference to a potentially good job creating project has stunned me.
But then why would well paid officials care about creating jobs and opportunities?

So I gave up on South Africa and decided to try our neighbouring Namibia. I made one phone call which got me the number of the Government Department Director.

He was in a meeting with a minister so I was asked to send an email. I feared another African reply (read No reply) but to my surprise he replied within 1 hour of receiving my mail. I was shocked - I am still in shock.

So I shall keep exploring opportunities on the continent I fell in love with, but I will no longer be restrained by a slow and frustrating bureaucratic system.


Goodbye South Africa - Hello Africa