by Gaynor Paynter

G21 Africa Columnist

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Gaynor Paynter & her sons

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Hello to all my friends in America, from this outspoken little country on the foot of Africa. My friends, I remember you daily in my prayers, in which I bid the Lord that the war your country is waging with Iraq may reach a conclusion - enough pain and suffering has been inflicted on all involved. I remember too the families whose men are at war, and those who have lost husbands and sons, as well as the families of innocent parties who have died on either side. To me the great tragedy of war is that it is always innocent people who must pay the ultimate price.

One day last week (I think it was Friday) I was driving to work, as is my daily habit. The morning had already been stressful as my four year old has this week taken it upon himself to find and push every button that I may have (and some that just look like buttons but aren't really. I think that I look like a calculator to him, but that is another story!) Anyway, my kids had been dropped off at créche, and I was on my way to work, driving on that nightmare section of land we call the freeway, which is laughable, because when I go on it it is never, ever, free at all, but always clogged with more cars than, as a child, I thought existed in the entire world, let alone existed in a small segment of Johannesburg.

So there I was, doing my normal thing, when I got it into my head that maybe if I changed lanes, I might get to my destination a few seconds earlier than if I stayed put. So, I checked over my shoulder (obviously not very effectively as it turned out), indicated and swung out to change lanes. Well, that was the intention, but what I did in practice was to swing out directly into a truck. Luckily we were only travelling at about 20 km/hour, but when you take into account that my Nissan Sentra, a 1989 model, is about two metres long and 1.5 metres high, and the truck was, um, somewhat more, you get the full extent of the picture.

There is something unreal about being in a car that is being hit by a truck. So many thoughts flash through your mind in that split second. It is true that your life flashes before your eyes. My thoughts ranged from, okay, stop now, truck, to how my husband would cope as a single parent to my two boys, to how my boys would face life without their mother, to what my boss would say when discovering that I was going to be late, to how I was going to pay for the damage to the car. To how I was going to pay for the damage to the truck (the accident was my fault). To how I was going to pay for the damage to the car.

Apparently, I had survived the impact, so that is what my mind settled on as I clambered out of the passenger door.

In a hazy blur, I took down all the details of the other party, who was quite amicable, luckily for me. I don't know if you have ever tried to write when you are in a state of shock. Your focus slides between getting the right information and not letting the rising panic take hold and completely destroy you and controlling your shaking hand so that you might be able to read what you are writing at a later stage.

Now, in South Africa, vehicle owners have two options. You can either ride "shotgun", so to speak, with no form of vehicle insurance. This saves you the monthly expense of insurance, not to mention all the hassles of insurance claims, but you are wide open to the risk of accidents (damage to your own car and the other party's must be taken into account), and theft. With the rate of crime in South Africa this is not really an option.

Your second option, the one most commonly used, is to take out vehicle insurance. Depending on the make and age of the vehicle, your age (I kid you not), and a whole host of other factors, the monthly expense of this ranges from very expensive to very, very, very expensive. Insurance companies (whose employees are all escaped convicts, I'm sure), also have another little daylight robbery ploy which they call the "excess".

Excess what, you ask?

Well, my definition is their excess salaries but their definition is that in the event of a claim they will only pay out after a certain amount is covered by the insured. In my case, it's R1000 [1000 Rand- Ed.] , which is about $100 which may not sound a lot to you guys but to me, with our exchange rate, it's a huge amount. And it is that R1000 that I'm going to have to find that's giving me gray hairs at the moment - not funny when all I have is R50 in my bank account!

Anyway, all this is what gave me the idea of doing a comparison of the cost of living between South Africa and America.

Please note that all American prices listed are based on prices in Manhattan, New York, while all South African prices listed are based on prices in Johannesburg, Gauteng. It should also be noted that prices reflecting for Johannesburg in US Dollars have been calculated at the exchange rate of ten rand to one dollar.

Categories 3 Bedroom House (buy) Property Tax Rate Schooling for High School Child (annual) Average Household Income (per annum, 2 incomes) Unemployment rate

Johannesburg $40 000 15.25% Private: $3000 (high standard, ratio of 15 students to 1 teacher) Govt: Varies up to $900, low standard, ratio up up to 40 students to 1 teacher) $16800 About 48%

New York City $825 000 1.94% $8987 (ratio: 1 teacher to 15 students) $47,030 About 7%

The cost of a 51 centimeter television in South Africa is about $140. You have two choices regarding healthcare in South Africa - use the state's, which you pay a nominal fee for, but which is in complete and utter disarray, or make use of medical insurance (a medical aid), which, in most cases - particularly when you require chronic medication, as my family does - is incredibly expensive. We pay R2000 (about $200) and it must be taken into consideration that a good salary in South Africa is about R7000 ($700), which neither of us earn at this stage. The cost of a good first hand car in South Africa is about R125 000, ($12,500) and second hand ones can be obtained for slightly less.

So by this very basic survey that I have conducted it can be seen that some aspects of living in South Africa are a lot cheaper than in America (for example the cost of property - if you can buy a house without the use of a home loan what a sound investment that would be!), education here seems to be cheaper, and it is a well-known fact that a private education in South Africa is of the very best quality, but the average household income in South Africa is rather a shadow of its brother in America.

The fact that South Africa is a developing country is of vital importance here - we South Africans can be proud of the fact that our country compares so favourably in the cost of living stakes to America when our economy is so much weaker than the dollar. Maybe the tides are turning in South Africa; why don't all you South African expats join the reverse brain drain movement which is current at the moment (to those who don't know, the "brain drain" is the term given in description of the mass exodus of many of South Africa's most highly qualified professionals in the post apartheid era) and come home and see the improvements for yourselves?

One fact alone that I can give you off the top of my head is that crime in Johannesburg central is down by sixty percent since the inception of closed circuit cameras in the area, and businesses are believed to be moving back to the area after the decentralisation a few years back.

In closing I want put the following thought across to all you Americans: In the demoralising mood that the war must be causing, it would be easy for you to forget what you are fortunate in having: A first world country, with a first world economy and first world morals.

And here's something that I hope will bring a smile to all your faces: Why did the Americans swoop down and arrest a Mathematics teacher from a school in Iraq? He was in possession of a ruler, a set square, a compass and a protractor - proof enough for the Americans that the Iraqis do indeed have weapons of maths instruction.

God Bless!

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References: : www.jirehimmigrations.co.za, www.homefair.com