Jewellery designer Kirsten Goss (33) commutes between her high-profile boutique in Kensington, London, and her design studio in Durban, where she now lives.
"We loved London for seven years. The 180° turnaround happened when Farren, our daughter, entered the world in July 2004. Coping with staff issues in my new business, clients, household chores, sleepless nights and breastfeeding in traffic, with no help or family, just seemed pure stupidity when you had alternatives. We also found it hard to imagine our child not knowing our country or our families.
"The past two years have been an adventurous journey of settlement. Durban was so new for both of us - 14 years away for me, and [husband] Steven, a foreigner' from Gauteng. Luckily four close friends had moved back, too.
"Working over two hemispheres and setting up an SA office was tough. And it takes time to Africanise' again and let things that are quintessentially Third World stop bothering you. But the way we feel now is that there is no perfect scenario in any country. We would rather wrestle through this fairly difficult time, help where we can in building SA up, and most of all live in this great country with its familiar places and exciting cultures.
"SA is going through big things and they're far from all bad. In the Durban office we've set up a production and goldsmithing hub with a multicultural team, and they're inspiring men and women, hungry and excited about growth and potential. "
Gerald Groenewald, IT entrepreneur
Groenewald (33) came back several months ago from London and has opened an outsource specialists company in Johannesburg.
"My wife and I left SA in 2005 after I was hijacked in Johannesburg for the third time. The third hijack was the most violent. The hijacker pulled the trigger three times without it firing. I was driven around for an hour while my captors tried to figure out if the vehicle had a tracker system, then I was pistol-whipped unconscious.
"Three months later I applied for my British visa, and my wife and I high-tailed it out of the Wild West. My brother was already in a village in Surrey where you could smell the SA braais and hear "Hoezit my bru?" in the pubs. He and I had had an IT company in the City of Gold, with heavyweight clients such as Young & Rubicam, The WPP Group, Legae Securities and Wip Capital.
"In the UK I got a job with a call centre company that was in the process of outsourcing globally but constantly being beaten back by the quality of the English they encountered everywhere. For them I travelled the planet, searching, and to be honest there's no place on earth like SA for high-quality English call centres. I think that's what made me start to want to return.
"I thought long and hard about it, then when I pitched the concept [of an SA call centre] to the board of directors they had a good laugh, referring to the circumstances I'd left behind. Though they declined the proposal, I decided that as a young, white, Afrikaans, previously advantaged person, this would be one way of returning to SA on my own terms.
"Four months after the birth of my first child and many hours of flying between the UK and SA, I brought my family back home. At that stage I'd started a company here called BPO Group, which was in its infancy. I piloted a test centre in Jo'burg's Kempton Park for the company I'd worked for. It's now my primary client. We've just signed off on a roughly R80m deal.
"I still sometimes feel apprehensive. But right now I'm taking advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime. "
Rich Field, marketing consultant
Field (39) has just launched his own company, Pollinate Communications, in East London, after nine years overseas.
"We got back from Australia a few months ago, my wife and I and our two boys, and I can honestly say I have not regretted returning for one minute. I love the excitement and positive energy here.
"We never made a decision to leave SA, never made an emotional break with the country. It was purely a good job opportunity with Cable & Wireless [the British telecommunications company] that turned into a nine-year international jaunt in which I was given the opportunity to work in a huge amount of markets, and get to do some cool stuff - like launch a new cola brand for Coca-Cola, and work with Virgin Mobile, my major retained client in Sydney, developing Australia's first wireless triple play.
"But we eventually decided to come home to our roots, families and old friends. We also wanted to put back some of what SA gave us as white South Africans. But this is not only about social conscience. There is a huge shortage of people here who are experienced and skilled, and great opportunities. Australia is an incredibly regulated country and, because of the maturity of the economy, short on opportunities.
"This is not to say that Australia is a bad place to be. There are enough similarities to our lifestyle for it to be a reasonably simple transition. But every time you land back in SA, the sights, sounds, colours and smells make it home."
Kirsten Zschokke, restaurateur
Zschokke (34) has opened her own stylish breakfast and lunch spot in Green Point, Miss K.
"After 10 years in London I had to make the decision: open a business in the UK or go home and do it. It was the idea of being with my family again that won me over. Of course, you think you are coming home, then you have to start all over again making new friends because everyone's moved on. And I had a tough time getting my business up and running. But after a year I feel more at home, though I hate reading about the crime.
"After I went to London in 1995 to travel and expand my cooking experience, the first couple of years were tough, even though I had a Cordon Bleu diploma and had worked for [tourism company] CC Africa. You have to do lots of unpleasant jobs before you start getting the well-paid freelance work. Still, I loved being in such a vibrant, safe city. But the weather does get you down, and eventually you miss being with South Africans and their ways, and generally all things familiar."
Justin Foxton, marketer
Back in KwaZulu Natal from London after six years, passionate alternative marketing guru Foxton (35) has launched a Stop Crime, Say Hello campaign.
"I returned only a year ago, but I'm still chuffed to be back, even with all the challenges. I keep thinking I'll wake up tomorrow and the light will have gone out - sorry! - but it hasn't.
"In London I was running an industrial theatre company, Comment UK, from our King's Cross offices. We did campaigns like the one for the mayor's office on the dangers of people switching to motorcycles to avoid traffic congestion. It was so successful it was filmed by the BBC.
"But I always wanted to come back. I think few countries present us with the opportunities SA does. We have the most awesome chance to bring about change. Stop Crime, Say Hello is one of the many reasons - along with Mrs Ball's and so on - that I came back. I believe we have to start actively respecting and dignifying one another, replacing negative language or the indifference of silence with a humanising, ubuntu-ising' attitude. Big change is brought about by small actions repeated often.
"But if the only reasons we come back are Mrs Ball's, friends and family, the weather and so on, it won't be long before the realities of crime, load shedding, dodgy politics, traffic and high inflation set in. We have to move away from negativity. Otherwise our legacy will be to create the failed democracy we talk about. "
Donovan Brown, project manager
Brown (36), who is in the construction industry, came back to Cape Town from London a few months ago with his wife and small daughter.
"I left in 1997 with a backpack. London was an exciting place for a 27-year-old, with lots of work and a thriving economy at that time. After a few years, though, the novelty wears off and the things that excited you suddenly annoy you! The weather, the jam-packed tube and the lack of living space.
"Though the UK was good to me for 10 years, I am at heart a South African. About six months ago, Anne and I decided we felt suffocated by London. I guess having a child brings home to you the need and desire to be with family.
"I was lucky enough to have arranged work prior to my coming back, and to have a place to stay initially. So for us it has been a relatively comfortable return. Though it might be too soon to tell, we're both happy to be home. It was friends here who encouraged us to come back, so I'm spreading the gospel."
Helen Ffoulkes-Morris, tourism and marketing manager for sa-venues.com
Cape Town-based Ffoulkes-Morris (34) came back last Christmas and is encouraging all her friends to do the same.
"I think a lot of people want to return because the lifestyle here is fantastic. I've lived in Australia and the UK, and I've been to New Zealand and Canada, and SA is most definitely the best of them all.
"I had been waitressing in Benoni when I went to London in 1996 with my brother. I'm originally from KwaZulu Natal, and we were on British passports.
"The UK is very jacked-up for young people looking for work and I found a job within a week. I loved the ease of life there, the public transport - and of course it was safe.
"It was those cold winter months that were the trigger. I didn't want to do another winter so I booked a ticket in January 2006 and returned at the end of that year. I'd been away for 10 years. Most of my friends here had stable jobs, owned houses and so on, while I had travelled the world and only owned what I came back with on the ship. It was a scary decision but at the same time exciting.
"People often ask me whether I would go back to London now, and I honestly can't think of anything worse. The only things I miss are Starbucks and The Gap!"
Allan Maram, business consultant
Maram (35) returned from the US a few months ago and is working as a senior business consultant at SAP, the global business software company.
"I was a change management consultant in Johannesburg when I got a job offer with a major consulting firm in the US, and my wife and I decided it would be a great opportunity. We left in 1998. America was certainly an exciting place to live, with significantly lower crime levels. But there were few job opportunities in my field that did not involve extensive travel, and we never really felt it was home.
"We pondered a return to SA and to friends and family for some time. Every decision involves trade-offs, and one of the biggest sacrifices in returning home is the crime levels. Fortunately, we live in a Jo'burg suburb that has an active patrol security force and has experienced rapid declines in crime. As a doctoral student in the area of public policy analysis, I feel this is a very encouraging development.
"I am thoroughly enjoying my work at SAP and am impressed with the talent at the firm. I can say this with confidence, having worked for two prestigious consulting firms in the US.
"We've been away nine years, and there is much to be said for family and old friends, for a feeling of belonging and for the opportunity to identify with one's cultural heritage."
