A Sunshine Coast woman has been waiting six months for a flight home to escape the increasing dangers of life in South Africa and an ever-present COVID threat.
Former Noosa Catering boss Bud Higgins, 72, is one of the 30,000 Australians stranded overseas, with no joy in sight of returning home any time soon.
For the past decade as the founder of Tinmugs Africa Trust, Bud has been giving children living in slums the chance at a healthier life and better education.
But she no longer feels safe in her beloved Cape Town.
While escalating crime in South Africa has taken its toll, the scourge of COVID-19 and resultant restrictions have tipped her over the edge.
The pandemic is still rampant in the country.
“South Africa has become very dangerous,” Bud said.
“Over the past week, there have been 13,000 new (COVID) cases daily.
“We have just been put back to Level 4 lockdown.
“Everywhere has a rule: ‘No mask – no entry’.
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“All shops, medical suites and businesses are only allowed 50% of normal capacity.
“We have to queue 1m apart and our temperatures are taken and recorded with name and contact number.
“No functions or weddings. All restaurants, pubs and clubs are locked down.
“Booze shops are closed until further notice. At 9pm, everyone must be off the streets and home.”
Social conditions also have become untenable.
“Unemployment is at an unacceptable level – said to be 39% but it is more like 45% as they have no idea how many illegal immigrants stream across our borders from neighbouring countries,” Bud said.
“And with that goes homelessness and hunger.
“Our crime levels are terrifying.
“I am tired of living in an electrified compound with night guards and not being able to walk safely to the local shops.
“At home (in South Africa), we all live in fear. They don’t just rob – rape and killings are common.
“Our compound is locked behind high walls topped with electric fences. The entry to the building has a locked burglar gate.
“My unit entry has a second burglar gate and the door is deadlocked, plus three other serious locks.
“Our car doors lock automatically upon acceleration.
“I never drive anywhere at night alone now. Nor do I feel safe driving on main country roads.
“If I, as a lone woman, get a puncture or breakdown on a quiet road, I am a sitting duck. In excess of 60 police are killed each year in South Africa.”
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Bud longs to be closer to son Callan, her six grandchildren, and the safety of Noosa’s arms.
But she has been thwarted in her numerous attempts to return home to date.
Now, her flight could be more than a year away.
After the July 2 national cabinet meeting, the number of arrivals in Australia from overseas will be slashed from July 14. Brisbane arrivals each week will be halved to 500, with a surge capacity of 150, and those numbers are likely to remain until 2022.
“Qantas are no longer flying here,” she said.
“At the moment, I have no idea when Qantas flights will again be available (due to a medical condition, I can’t do the long haul through Dubai with Emirates, for example).
“I’ve booked for November but they now say mid-2022.
“I also don’t choose on arrival to be put into a hotel at my own expense and locked in a room alone, with no use of pool or gym.
“I’d rather stay here in our lovely large gardens under the mountain and wait.
“I’m sad I can’t see my grandchildren and son Callan. It’s been too long now.
“I have a home in Noosa and want to spend my next decade feeling free on the Sunshine Coast, still keeping my thumb on the charity pulse from a safe and sane place.”
It seems like a lifetime ago to Bud that she moved to the Coast from Sydney in 1990 to start Noosa Catering.
Back then, her world revolved around food, social events and the love of her family.
Bud and her expert team orchestrated catering for hundreds of functions and weddings before she sold the business in 2012 to head chef Matt Conquest.
But South Africa was calling her back. She arrived in the country as a young bride in 1969 and her two boys, Shane and Callan, were later born there.
During the difficult years of apartheid, the family moved to Sydney where her sons were educated, and Bud opened a restaurant in Mosman.
However, Bud’s passion for Africa never waned, returning each year to spend time on safari.
In 2006, she suffered the sad loss of her elder son and father-of-three girls, Shane, whose life was cut short when his helicopter hit a powerline hidden in gum trees in NSW, during a rural council weed survey.
Several years after the tragedy, Bud’s daughter-in-law Kylie married a close friend of the family and her granddaughters have been fortunate to grow up with a wonderful new father.
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Feeling safe in this knowledge, Bud packed her bags and moved back to dwell in the shadow of Table Mountain where Shane was born.
Her life changed forever on Christmas Day, 2012, when she answered the plea to help feed 2000 poor African children.
As is commonly the story of Africa, that crowd soon swelled to 3000 within hours, once word spread of the miraculous achievement.
“In the absence of divine intervention, I helped turn the story of the loaves and fishes into reality and every child went home with a full belly,” Bud remembered fondly.
Unbeknown to her at the time, she was about to become “mother” to many small dependents.
Soon after that fateful Christmas Day, her charity Tinmugs Africa Trust was born and has since achieved its goal of feeding hundreds of poor African children.
Through the generosity of Australian sponsors, Bud was able to meet the educational and clothing needs of many more impoverished children.
Of those, closest to her heart is Kristy: an eight-year-old Bud rescued from shantytown life at the request of the shy young girl’s family.
Home for Kristy and her younger siblings was a single-room tin shack, set beside thousands of similar structures. Not a blade of grass. No running water. A nearby row of long-drop toilets serving hundreds of people.
Bud moved Kristy’s family into a furnished flat in a suburb where it is safe for her to visit.
Kristy, who will turn 18 at the end of the year, has since thrived under Bud’s care, visiting Australia four times and now undertaking Senior schooling at a top Cape Town girls’ school.
Despite the depth of personal satisfaction in what has been accomplished to date, Bud knows the charity is in good hands and that it’s time for her to step away – even though that might mean leaving Kristy behind.
“Claude, my ‘adopted’ adult Rwandan son, has been working in the charity alongside me for the past nine years and it is time to hand the reins over,” she said.
“Since the Covid outbreak in March last year and due to my age, I have been careful to work behind the scenes, although it’s sad not seeing the children.
“If Kristy decides to remain here (in South Africa) for her tertiary education, she has her other sisters and mother and brothers within close proximity and wonderful support from my friends.”
