The BBC's Andrew Harding reflects on his years in a country of increasingly stark contrasts.
As he prepares to leave South Africa, the BBC's Andrew Harding reflects on his years in a country of increasingly stark contrasts - and on the struggle to find the right balance in reporting on such a complex nation.Cold nights. Clear, bone-dry days. The honks and squawks of ibises and louries - shuffling silhouettes in the leafless trees.The packers have been busy at our home just over the steep ridge that divides the old "downtown" from the tree-clogged northern suburbs.
Overhearing my conversation about kennels and crates and extravagant shipping costs, she announced to the room that she'd leave "this wretched country" too - in a heartbeat.It's now almost 30 years since the end of racial apartheid and the chaotic but near-miraculous birth of South Africa's young democracy. It's a shock to realise that I've been here for half of that journey.
At the same time, this is still a frighteningly violent nation, now also warped by corruption, and plagued by hunger.Still, it is becoming more challenging to sustain the belief that South Africa - this charming, troubled, rainbow nation - will simply continue to muddle, endlessly, through.South Africa's government has struggled to bring down unemployment levelsKey infrastructure systems - water, rail transport, electricity - are in dire straits. Schools too.
It sort of works, like so much here. But this kind of patchwork resilience is hardly something to boast about. We argued about Ukraine, Putin, and Nato expansion - about the men's enduring nostalgia for the Soviet Union and its support for the anti-apartheid struggle. I sensed guilt in his voice. And sure enough, he admitted that his once beloved ANC - a party that helped liberate South Africa - had failed the challenges of democracy.
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