What is Potchefstroom like to live in?

August 11, 2017 6:14 PM

Has anyone here had experience with living in Potchefstroom, in South Africa? Is crime there as much as a problem as it is in the larger cities? Is commuting to Johannesburg (e.g. by a partner who might not find work in Potchesfstroom themselves) at all feasible?

I'm also interested in general in the experience of people from Australia or New Zealand who have moved to South Africa. What were the good things, the bad things, the surprising things? Would you make the same choice again?

posted by lollusc to Travel & Transportation around Potchefstroom, South Africa (1 answer total)

So I can't answer too much of your question but my father took a secondment to South Africa for 1.5 years in 1995 when I was 8. We moved from a small town in the North Island to Cape Town so being in a big city was a big enough change from our lifestyle block. We found the shanty towns and kids begging at the traffic lights very confronting.

Our holidays were awesome. We went to a variety of parks including Kruger and Etosha (in Namibia). There were rock dassies, zebras, giraffes plus all the other animals (the Lion King had just been released a year or so before so it was even more amazing). In Kruger giraffes were so common by the end of our few days they kind of just got ignored like you would sheep. There was also the worry of snakes but we didn't encounter any - that had to wait until I was living in Darwin a few years ago and one ended up on my first floor apartment's balcony.

I don't have anything to add on the crime or day to day practicalities but the holidays have stayed with me (and my brother who was only 4 at the time) for over 20 years now - it was that amazing. (It also doesn't feel over 20 years ago).
posted by poxandplague at 2:36 AM on August 14, 2017