Expats should stop bashing SA, says Minister

According to Brand SA chairwoman Chichi Maponya it is important to “engage with South Africans living abroad” because locals in those countries usually went to them for opinions on South Africa, and their words carried a lot of weight.
“They need to know… how it has fared over the 20 years of democracy; that it is a country many South Africans are proud… to live in and to be associated with, and the role it plays and will continue to play globally and in the continent,” Maponya said.
Chabane told The Star newspaper he became aware of SA expats bashing SA while taking a taxi in Dubai. He was surprised when the driver blurted out that South Africa was a very bad country. “Where did you get this idea?” a perplexed Chabane asked. “Other South Africans who work here,” the driver responded.
This is why he jumped at the opportunity to address expats at a two-day event in Melbourne and Sydney. Here he said while South Africa had its problems, bashing the country would only hurt the economy. “It hurts the reputation of the country, and also hurts the morale of people who believe it could be… competitive enough to engage in world trade without difficulty. This is an issue which we think is important for all South Africans wherever they are to understand.”
According to the South African high commissioner to Australia, Kholeka Mqulwana, about 143,000 South Africans live there, the majority in Perth.
Many South African Aussies are anti-SA, it is claimed. When they talk about their home country, it is always in a negative way, regardless of who they’re talking to, says SA expats quoted by The Star.
“They do bash it, especially coloured people. I sometimes wish I could disown my family, as they badmouth South Africa all the time. All they see is negativity,” says a person the newspaper only identifies as Mabel.
Two Australians said they were constantly shocked at how South Africans talk disparagingly about their country all the time, never having anything positive to say about it. “They tell us that it’s dangerous there, you will get shot if you go there, and that everyone carries a gun. It’s as if they need to justify why they moved here,” one said.