Why I Am Moving To Benin After 15 Years In South Africa
A few of my friends (@littlebee4, @joanstewart, @r1s2g3, @josediccus ) on Hive are aware that I am planning on leaving South Africa without a detailed reason and I have been asked why a few times with my response being I will share a post about it.
With the thoughts running through me, it is going to be more than one post, so be on the lookout for posts about my move to the Republic of Benin.
Before going further, this post could be the longest I have ever written on Hive, it is more personal and special to me, like a diary of my 15-year stay in South Africa.
Arriving In South Africa
I arrived in SA from Nigeria in February 2008, my struggle began at the airport as I couldn't get hold of my contact that was supposed to collect me at from the airport (his phone was on voicemail).
I had some USD on me and I bought a SIM card and airtime, so I called Nigeria to let the family be aware of the situation. Eventually, I was connected with someone else in SA that came to fetch me from the airport.
It wasn't a happy meeting with the person that fetch me from the airport, I would be upset as well as it was unplanned, and don't even know each other personally. Many thanks to him, Emeka by the name.
My First Job In SA
Emeka had a bottle store and a bar, I worked for him at the bottle store for some weeks and he then moved me to the bar in the West of Johannesburg, Florida.
He was at the point of giving up on the bar due to the bar manager embezzling of funds, so when I took over I never succeeded in getting money from him to fund alcohol for sale.
I still had some money with me which I injected into the business and paid myself back the money I put in. I revived the place, it was simple, and all I did was work with the locals, the bouncer and I got along well so we brainstorm and made a fair success of the place.
I managed the place for two years and within that two years the bar was robbed twice the first one with a gun to my head, I was scared to death but thankfully no one was shot but I got some beating as I was the target, most thought I was the owner of the bar. They made away with about $260 back then around 2009/2010.
Joe The Gardener
I had to quit the bar manager job since the boss's friend was fighting for my position.
During my time working in the bar, I did a part-time course in Business communication and computer, I was optimistic about getting a job and landed two interviews.
In one of the interviews, I was asked if I wanted to job as a cover-up for my drug dealings. It was a heartbreaking moment and the reality of no source of income to sure sets. I was discriminated against many times for being a Nigerian in SA and that was just the beginning.
I am fairly good with Maths even though I have now become lazy with calculations. So I put an advert in the church bulletin for a Maths tutor. I got a few students whom I taught Maths at their homes and charged $5.8. The Maths tutoring didn't last long as I began to stress a lot and wasn't delivering to the students.
So I tried something that will be less demanding mentally, I put another advert in the church bulletin seeking employment as a gardener as seen above, I have kept that bulletin since 2009 to tell stories.
I had a girlfriend during this time, a very lovely lady, she stood by me, and her mom and sister paid for my rent twice since I couldn't afford to, a very embarrassing moment in my life.
My Breakthrough
My breakthrough sourced from being a gardener. I worked in the garden for two years, I chose not to give up and go back home.
One day while I was busy in the garden, Mariana came to me saying;
Joe, you are very thorough, you even move the pot and sweep under, I appreciate that and your English is more fluent than mine and unlike our previous gardener, I don't struggle to communicate with you.
My response was I, Ma I can't get a job that is why am doing this, I have a certificate in Computer, she said no Joe I don't believe you so I told her I will come with my CV the following week.
Come Tuesday of the following week I went with my CV and she said;
No Joe this garden job is not for you, we will share your CV with our friends at the church to get you a job.
About four months later I got a month's contract job in telecoms and when the project was over I was retained and eventually made permanent to becoming the Telecommunication Technician that I am today.
Above is a picture of Mariana and her husband, she is of Austrian origin and her Husband is German. He passed away last year 2022 but am I still friends with the family and we are planning a lunch out together before I leave for the Republic of Benin.
Losing My Son & Mother
I mentioned having a girlfriend that stood by me above, we conceived a boy and lost him to a seven-month stillbirth in 2012. He will always be the biggest loss in my life, I had bonded with him, and the way he kicks from his mother's womb immediately when I get back from work was a beautiful experience I will always treasure.
2015 I lost my mom, I couldn't fly home because my work permit had expired and undergoing renewal if I had flown down for my mom's burial I can't come back to SA, and to date, I am yet to visit where my mom was laid to rest. Losing these two was my toughest in SA.
My Telecoms Career
Starting with no experience, I ended up thriving in Telecoms, I was thrown under the bus by my boss to lead the team, six months after he hired me. It was nervy I was still learning, and I wasn't efficient but with help of colleagues, we delivered.
Over the years I managed bigger projects and led teams of 11 at some point. Wits University and Port Elizabeth International Airport remain the toughest projects I will always be proud of myself for that were under my supervision as an employee.
As Freelancer Northgate Mall which I did in 2021 was the toughest and my first as a freelancer, it was a very tough project but am grateful for having the mental attitude not to give up as I build the In Building Solution (IBS) for Northgate Mall.
Some Work Photos to Share:
Me on a cell phone tower working on a vandalized site.
Testing CAT cables on a Huawei Lampsite.
A 3 Sector Ericsson RRUs
A 2 Sector Huawei RRUs
When I look very dirty routing cables in confined spaces.
This is a nice throwback to when I learned how to use the Anritsu Site Master for Sweep Tests, the moment I knew how to do Sweep tests, you are not getting that device off me. It is my most keen side of Radio Frequency.
Above are some Sweep test results
A Rosenberger remote unit I installed at Northgate Mall.
I enjoyed my Telecom career and was fortunate my boss was the best boss to have worked for, he was a mentor, more like a big brother, I onboarded him to Hive in 2021 @sheldon07142025, and he created an intro post and absconded 😃. He had to close down the company as things got tough, so I moved on but we still stay in touch and did private jobs together.
I Got Into Uber Business
I got a contract job as Telecommunication Technician with another company, nothing like working for my ex-boss but it kept me going.
I am always trying ways for multiple sources of income, so I moved the funds from the Brazilian hair sales which I was importing from China into getting a Rent-to-own car.
Above is a handshake of getting into debt, I smiled not knowing the nightmare that awaits me. I have always wanted to share a post about how the Uber business went wrong and for the first time, I am getting the motivation to write about it so expect a separate post about it.
Why I Am Moving To The Republic of Benin
You would question why after I have been through the worse, I seem to be doing okay with experience in Telecoms.
The reason behind this is the same reason why I couldn't fly home for my mom's funeral in 2015.
The resident permit issue has been setting me back from getting things done, in SA. It has been the granting of a two to three years work permit by the immigration office (Home Affairs) and each of these residence permit renewals costs me +- $645.
I am due for permanent residence which I applied for in 2019 and to date no outcome of it.
The impact of not having a residence permit is I can't open a bank account, I registered my company over five years ago but can't use it because I don't have a residence permit.
The PO for the Northgate Mall project which I did to give you a better perspective was $19965.00 and I got $4100 with me being the one with experience that had the project delivered since the company that got the tender has no Radio Frequency experience. If I had my resident permit I will do projects directly for myself without a middleman.
The residence permit thing has been stifling my growth and it's been years of hoping things will get better but it isn't.
So I got to the conclusion to rather leave. You would notice I kept mentioning the Republic of Benin and not Nigeria. The reason is am partly Beninese, my mom was from there, and I used to visit the country in my youth days.
The challenge though is I never claimed citizenship of Benin, my parents and I never saw the need for it back then so being a Visa-free country for Nigerians the first thing when I land there is to embark on ways to apply for citizenship.
I can't deal with the crap going on in Nigeria, I will lose my sanity going back to a country that struggles to keep its electricity on, has no good roads, and poor water system. So I am opting for Benin.
It is a bold move that I am embarking on, not an easy one for me. The plan is to either tap into the Telecom sector in that country though being a small country compared to SA I am not overly optimistic about that. But with the freedom to move around which I am not getting from SA, I intend to try contract projects globally and return home, I am not keen on being a foreigner any longer.
And I am looking at remote work as well, in addition to Hive and as matter of fact I won't be making this move if I don't have Hive to support me, more of this move and how Hive fits in will come up in subsequent posts.
I will have to end it here, it's been a long one.
We owe it to ourselves to make Hive great
Image by @doze
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