Expatriate South African businessman and philanthropist Johan Oldenburg has temporarily swapped the Netherlands for his beloved South Africa so he can launch his book, Emigrating Successfully: The Insider's Guide, in the country of his birth.
Oldenburg rose to prominence in 2022 when he, upon hearing of the Russian army invading the Ukraine while he was on a holiday in France, rented a luxury bus and rescued 52 Ukrainian women and children from the border.
“We took them to the Netherlands where we helped them with shelter and later employment. I gave the Ukrainians pocket money for the first six months but stayed in touch with a lot of them until now,” Oldenburg said.
But the focus of this trip is not his busload of refugee friends who have since become family.
“My book is not for or against emigrating, but after you have read it you will hopefully know which one is meant for you.”
Oldenburg says Emigrating Successfully is available in most bookshops.
“What a wonderful feeling walking into Exclusive Books and seeing a stack of 50 copies there. I tried to give readers with an interest in emigrating the unvarnished truth. I used the word 'bullshitters' four times in the manuscript and the editors removed three of them. I had to fight for that fourth one,” he said, laughing.
Oldenburg, who was born in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, left South Africa for the Netherlands in the late 1990s after earning a degree in accountancy at the former Rand Afrikaans University (now known as the University of Johannesburg).
“I started cleaning fish in the Netherlands. Hard work in miserable weather. Through my boss there I got a job at an accountancy firm and from there I went on my own. That accountancy firm still does my books.”
He later built up and sold a chain of 11 clothing factories in Vietnam before returning to the Netherlands.
Having “emigrated so successfully” he was often asked questions about what prospective emigrants should expect from the experience. These FAQs led to his book.
“I wanted people to know what to expect. If you emigrate without the proper knowledge, expectation easily becomes delayed disappointment.”
His book is no step-by-step guide.“
If your expectation for my book is to find out how and where to go to obtain your visas and so on, you will be disappointed. I don't explain the how; I look at the mental state and the business side of it — especially entrepreneurship,” Oldenburg said on Tuesday while enjoying lunch at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
“Emigration books and pep talks show you the nice and the beautiful, but you are never warned about the negatives, such as homesickness. Any emigrant who tells me he has never cried his heart out from missing his country or people is a liar.”
When I arrived in Johannesburg at OR Tambo airport, being back in South Africa was like receiving a long, warm hug from an old friend
— Johan Oldenburg
For Oldenburg, entrepreneurship and emigration are related.
“I make a correlation between the two. If you are brave enough to start your own business, you can be brave enough to emigrate.
“You must remember the grass may be greener on the other side of the fence and that could be because of good soil and enough rain, but it can also be because of heaps of organic fertilising done by cattle.”
His philanthropy is not limited to his Ukrainian friends.
“We give a yearly, large, one-off sum of money to top scholars in South Africa and I have also in the past taken South African teachers and children to Europe so they can experience the museums and the history,” he said.
For now, Oldenburg is back in South Africa basking in the autumn sun at the foot of Table Mountain.
“It is wonderful to be back. When I arrived in Johannesburg at OR Tambo airport, being back in South Africa was like receiving a long, warm hug from an old friend.”
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