Yoh! Visiting your home village for the holidays – don’t forget to leave your ‘big city’ attitude behind

For some, the festive season is about going back home from the big cities to spend time with their loved ones in small towns and villages but their return sometimes leaves a bitter taste for the locals, who complain they have to deal with “braggers” from the big cities.

If social media is anything to go by, Joburgers are the most complained about — from changing their accents to nagging about slow queues.

Police in Mpumalanga have gone as far as pleading with migrant workers to behave this festive season and not cause trouble in their hometowns and villages.

Police spokesperson for that province Brig Leonard Hlathi said over the years, authorities had noticed a spike in violence during the festive season — and most of the culprits were people who worked in other provinces.

Although Hlathi could not provide statistics, he said it was a common trend.

“Sometimes they start fights at taverns but the most common and worrying one is domestic violence. It’s so difficult to deal with domestic violence because it happens behind closed doors,” Hlathi told TimesLIVE.

Nkosinathi Nkosi from Vaalbank in Mpumalanga, said the annoying thing about migrant workers is that they pretend to be superior to everyone. “When they are here, they jump queues because you can see that they think they have more money than everyone around here.

“At taverns they even go as far as approaching your girlfriend while you are with her because they think they are the best and that is when fights start because that is pure disrespect,” he told TimesLIVE.

The weather issue is also a touchy one. Lerato Thubakgale, from Madidi village in the North West, said Joburgers complain about the heat in the village.

“From the day they arrive, they’ll be complaining about how hot it is and one wonders if we have a different sun from Joburg.