In this powerful and deeply personal conversation with DJ Warras, businessman and outspoken South African Rob Hersov opens up about the emotional pull that brought him back home after more than three decades abroad.
After spending 31 years in America, Europe and the UK building companies and chasing success, Rob admits that something was always missing. A formative memory from his twenties stayed with him: drifting through the jungles of Burma on a tramp steamer, where he met a Belgian man who had grown up in the Congo and spoke about Africa with vivid intensity. Africa, he said, stayed alive in the senses, while Europe felt grey and hollow. That idea never left Rob.
Years later, while working relentlessly overseas, Rob realised he missed South Africa. Not the politics or the dysfunction, but the feeling of being fully alive. He returned with his wife for what he thought would be a short stay, convinced that Zuma’s South Africa was beyond saving. Instead, something unexpected happened. His New Zealand born wife fell in love with the country, and Rob found himself reconnecting with it too. Despite public criticism and personal threats for speaking out, he chose to stay.
Rob jokes that South Africans remain because “we are allowed to shoot back,” but the deeper truth is far more human. He loves the Karoo, the bush, the open roads, and even the rough edges of Port Elizabeth. Most of all, he loves the people, from taxi drivers and hotel staff to strangers along the way. This clip captures a feeling many South Africans understand. This country can frustrate you, break your heart, and still pull you home.
No matter how far you go, something here never lets you go completely.
