I recently learnt how popular South African proteas are abroad - commercially speaking, far more so than in their home country. And so, naturally, I went in search of some numbers and maps to throw into a chart or two that I find quite interesting.

That they’re so popular is hardly surprising. They’re magnificent plants that date back millions of years. They’re named after the son of Poseidon, partly, it’s believed, because they include over 1,500 almost shapeshifting species. And the alien-like plants, with cleverly chosen names like Brushing Bride and Magnifica Pink, make particularly good additions to grand European or American weddings.

You’ll find around 300 of these protea species in South Africa, many growing wild on the country’s mountain slopes. But they’re extremely popular in regions where they aren’t endemic and can’t grow - and as a result, an entire industry has risen out of their local farming and global exports.

Flown around the world

Each year, usually between July and November, millions of proteas make their way from farms to pack sheds. There, they’re boxed as individual stems, then trucked to warehouses, airports, and ultimately flown fresh to their export destinations.

These flowers in transit aren’t treated like second-rate produce, either. Although passengers will never know, most of these millions of proteas head overseas hidden in plain sight in refrigerated compartments, set at precisely four degrees, alongside their luggage in stock-standard commercial airliners.

On arrival, usually only a few hours after being harvested, most proteas go to auction houses, then markets and flower shops. Ultimately, they take up positions in wedding ceremonies, lavish hotel lobbies, or live out the last of their shortened lives in the sporadic sunlight on a Dutch windowsill - just hours after being plucked from South African soil.

The number of proteas exported from South Africa is staggering.

In 2019, South African growers exported just under 7 million protea stems. This took a dip due to Covid-19 the following year. But numbers have continued to soar since - with more than 8.5 million leaving South Africa in passenger plane luggage holds last year.

South African proteas end up in various regions around the world, mostly influenced by the ease and cost of shipping. As fresh products, they require a constant cold chain, so that rules out or makes them rarer (and much pricier) in several destinations, like the Americas.

Only a few remain in Africa, and the Middle East picks up about 6% of our protea exports. The Far East buys about 18% of all exports. Australia, where proteas are also endemic, buy almost none from South Africa.

But the vast majority of South Africa’s exported proteas - 68% - head directly to the flower markets of Europe. There, they’re mostly sold at auction and are popular additions to local weddings and other ceremonial occasions.

Not all proteas are considered equal

Some proteas are significantly more popular than others.

Far and away, the most popular protea variety is Blushing Bride, also known as Pride of Franschhoek. It’s a beautiful flower, but its name is a stroke of marketing genius - with this being the protea to include in wedding ceremonies abroad.

Close behind it is Banksia. This diverse species is native to Australia but is now grown widely in South Africa, and it includes about 170 species of flowering plants.

After these two leading protea varieties, things mostly level out, with such creative names as Cynaroides, Pink Ice, and Barbigera Magnifica Pink making their way overseas in their hundreds of thousands.

For December and January, exports slow to a trickle. But come February, South Africa’s frantic protea world whirs back to life, ready to better the previous year’s records by getting millions of these fascinating flowers to remote corners of the continent.

Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees are among the most popular post-graduate options in most countries - and South Africa is no different.

There are now at least a dozen business schools in South Africa that sell various MBA courses, either full or part-time, online or in-person, and usually over two years. Some are purely local courses, and others offer hugely expensive international field trips.

Vastly different prices

MBAs in South Africa come in at vastly different prices and with varying levels of global recognition. R200,000 separates the most expensive MBA from the cheapest. And in 2024, you’ll pay anything from R194,000 to over R400,000 for the same degree.

At the top end of the table is the University of Pretoria’s GIBs, which now charges at least R400,000 for its MBA course. Close behind it is long-term competitor Henley Business School, which charges R385,000.

Just three MBAs cost less than R200,000 - IIE MSA (formerly Monash South Africa, which seemingly offered a huge discount over the last year), Management College of Southern Africa (MANCOSA), and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Not all MBAs are equal

Still, most will tell you that not all MBAs are equal, and you mostly get what you pay for - at least in perceived worth. It’s important to look for global accreditation if you’re looking to take your career international. And global rankings and recognition for local MBAs vary from almost non-existent to fairly competitive.

But considering that a top-ranked MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business costs at least R1.4 million, you may be willing to settle for one from UCT, placed 45th, for about R1 million less.

How MBA costs in South Africa compare

Comparing rankings is complex and controversial, so I’ll cop out of that. But comparing expenses is slightly easier, although likely comes with some anomalies caused by outdated fee schedules and unhelpful admissions offices.

Still, I’ve rounded up the costs of 12 MBAs in South Africa, and to help avoid further procrastination, I’ve also included all the price increases from 2023 - which vary from no increase to as much as R47,000 more. There’s no time like the present.

In the wake of some great radio and television conversations about school fees in South Africa, a few interesting questions popped up. And I also wanted to share this final chart that shows the disparity between the two educational worlds.

Share

Why are girls’ schools cheaper than boys’?

This is particularly noticeable at the government school level, where there are only usually two girls’ schools that make the top ten most expensive government schools in South Africa. At the private school level, several elite girls-only and several co-ed schools have consistently been in the mix.

I’m no education expert by any stretch, but some of the hypotheses I discussed with radio and TV presenters this week were that boys’ sporting infrastructure is traditionally pricey, and they may be harder or more expensive to educate.

But I think much of it has to do with historical discrepancies reaching back centuries - and that it’s unlikely to change at government school level anytime soon.

What I’ve learnt in the last four years of compiling these lists is that with a few outlier exceptions, schools don’t increase their fees by much more than inflation.

If girls’ schools were once disadvantaged, considered cheaper, and therefore priced lower, those discrepancies would live on - until an individual school makes a rash decision to increase fees dramatically.

Although some girls’ schools have increased fees by as much as 25% to try and introduce some parity and presumably increase their resources, this is always off a low base and unusual.

Similarly, there appears to be no catching Kearsney at the top of the list of most expensive private day schools.

Many of the schools in the private school top ten have settled into a spot, and with a few shuffles up and down, it would take a marked and likely controversial percentage increase to shift it.

This, inevitably, led to a second question:

Are high school fees marketing collateral?

In several conversations, I was asked why some schools price themselves so high - and in immediate follow-ups, if this means that the pricey schools are better than the cheaper ones.

This is, of course, not necessarily the case - there are some shining examples of no-fee and desperately poor schools achieving phenomenal results.

But that the two questions seem to go hand-in-hand, and there’s a perception in South Africa that expensive equals better, I would cynically hypothesise that some schools see their placement on these top ten lists not as a bad thing but as a tool in their marketing collateral.

How government school fees compare to private (and some corrections)

It’s far easier to compile a list of private school fees in South Africa - there are fewer high-end private schools, they tend to post openly about their fees, and their positions in the lists remain mostly unchanged year after year.

A retort to the private school list often comes in that these lists exclude international schools, which are sometimes significantly more expensive.

My feeling is that these are oddities rather than norms - many attract wealthy foreigners living in South Africa, and offer astronomical fees and many generous bursaries. Most also don’t operate on traditional South African schooling models, and they’ve never seemed to fit within these lists.

Lastly, there are definitely some ommissions from my list of government schools, as many sharp readers have pointed out. An exhaustive list is nearly impossible, so treat this more as an overview of the trends than a definitive source.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the above in the comments or by getting in touch directly.

Subscribe now

South Africa’s most expensive government day school in 2024 is still Pretoria Boys’ High School. For the first time for any local government school, Pretoria Boys’ High broke through the R70,000 milestone - it now charges parents R70,200 per year.

King Edward VII School is only R330 behind, at R69,870 for a matric year.

Still, even the most expensive government schools in South Africa are about R170,000 cheaper than the most expensive private schools in South Africa.

Rondebosch Boys’ High School and Grey High School Port Elizabeth remain in positions three and four this year at R68,900 and R68,400, respectively.

In a change to the top five, Wynberg Boys’ High School drops to 7th place, edged down by Parktown Boys’ High and Jeppe High School for Boys.

Rounding out the R60k club is South African College High School, known by most as SACS, which now costs R61,000 per year - up from R57,200.

Subscribe now

Prices in the lower half of the chart vary widely. And the top 10 features only two girls’ schools, in 9th and 10th: Parktown Girls’ High and Rustenburg Girls’ High School.

The cheapest of the schools we identified in the top 13 is Bryanston High School, which charges R51,200. But dozens of government schools now charge around the R50,000 mark before you enter into the realm of the really cheap and no-fee schools.

For this reason, an exhaustive and entirely accurate list in this category is nearly impossible.

Share

Increases of close to 9% for some schools

Government schools were not shy with their increases for 2024. Although they come from a lower base than private schools, most increased their fees by over 6%.

The biggest increase we could identify for the 2024 academic year was at Paul Roos, where parents will pay R4,680 more, thanks to an 8.89% increase.

The next biggest percentage increase, of 7.25%, comes from Parktown Girls’ High, which makes it the most expensive public girls’ day school in South Africa for the first time.

The smallest increase for 2024 comes from Parktown Boys’ High, which hiked its fees by just 2.19% from last year - but it’s still enough for that school to retain its top-five position.

Share

Both interviews raised questions about how Quality Streets compare globally - and although we’ve missed the boat to do an international audit, we have, absurdly, invested a little more time into this topic.

How Quality Street prices compare in 7 countries

As our initial audit showed, the cost of a standard bag of Quality Street has only gone up. And we’re now getting less chocolate for our money than ever before.

A single Quality Street bought in a 435g bag in South Africa now costs about R2.83. Eat five of the variety chocolates, and you’ll have spent the equivalent of a KitKat Chunky. Which, to our mind, is a far better investment for your tastebuds.

So for a bitesize followup, we’ve researched the price of Quality Street bags and tins in seven countries on five continents.

We found that the cost of Quality Street chocolates varies quite significantly around the world. And that it seems like South Africa is one of the few countries that doesn’t have tins, and sells them in pretty large plastic packets.

There are a few things that will impact costs in our above calculations. Volume and packaging differ in most countries. We’ve done our best to pick equal size containers, though some only sell in the 650g tins. Our research wouldn’t pass the scrutiny of the IMF, but it’ll do just fine as a basic insight into Quality Street economics.

What we found

Most interestingly, to us at least, is that there’s still a clear loyalty towards England, the Quality Street motherland. In the UK, Quality Street costs just R19.54 per 100g - R10 less than the next cheapest destination, South Africa.

Australia isn’t too far behind South Africa - there, you can get a carton that equates to about R34.51 per 100g. And Belgium, the home of much better chocolate, charges around R37.68 per 100g.

But that’s where things start to unravel.

Canadian Quality Streets cost around R42.08 per 100g, and the cartons we researched in India cost R53.65 per 100g.

But by far the most expensive place to buy Quality Streets is in the land of equally mid-level chocolate, the United States. There, you’ll need to pay R62.67 per 100g, or as much as R400 for a single tin of the variety pack.

OK, that’s all on Quality Streets for now, we think. Unless you want to weigh in in the comments section.

We have several other similarly left-field topics lined up for the coming weeks, so to be the first to know, you can subscribe for free using the button below.

Subscribe now

We’ve been tracking Quality Streets in South Africa for four years now, and this year, we bought over two kilograms of them to see how they’ve changed since last year - if at all.

Firstly, we found that Quality Streets have never been more expensive. Bag sizes continue to shrink, and prices have only gone up. And, perhaps even worse, there’s now little to no variation between bags. 

So we now know exactly how many of each type of chocolate is in each bag of Quality Streets you pull off the shelf - and we’re about to tell you so you can also be the smart alec around the dinner table this December.

Subscribe now

Quality Streets continue to shrink - and increase in price

In 2020, a plastic bag of Quality Streets weighed 500 grams and cost about R100. One year later, Nestle reduced the bag size by 50 grams - but was kind enough to keep the price mostly unchanged.

2022 is when things started to get a little nasty. Nestle shaved a further 15g off the bag and added around R10 to the overall price.

And this year marks the biggest increase of the lot - with no extra chocolates inside.

According to what we found on the shelves, in 2023, you’ll be lucky to get away with a bag of Quality Streets for under R130. We’ve seen some prices as high as R170 per bag. And you’re still only getting 435g.

On average, you’re also getting one chocolate less per bag - of the five we checked, three had 46 chocolates, and only two had 47.

And if you’re tempted to go for a slightly classier version, Nestle has for the first time launched a Quality Street “carton”. It has just 232g of chocolates inside, and is selling for as much as R120 in stores - which is definitely not the way to go if you’re looking for the best value.

A few small changes to packaging

Apart from the introduction of overpriced cardboard cartons, Nestle has only tinkered slightly with Quality Street chocolates this year.

They’ve changed the shapes of several variations once again. Some that were long are now round, and some that were skinny are now a little shorter and fatter.

And gone are the old foil and translucent wrapper packaging - mostly. Curiously, it seems they’re still phasing out the old packaging by diluting it with new. There were a few strays bearing old wrappings, but for the most part, products are in a new waxy wrapping of a slightly more muted palette.

Only the Orange Chocolate Crunch and the ever-elusive and perennial crowd favourite, The Green Triangle, retain their traditional foil wrappings.

Now almost no variation

Perhaps the most important element of the year’s most unnecessary article is how much variation there isn’t between each bag of Quality Streets. You can now pluck any five off the shelves and know with relative confidence that you’ll be getting the exact same 46 sweets.

When we first started the ridiculous task of counting these chocolates in 2021, there were 12 options. Many of these, including a few favourites, have been discontinued or renamed. There are no coffee-flavoured or combo milk and white chocolate options, and all names have been aligned to their global counterparts.

And when it comes to diversity, the news this year is dire. 

Gone are the days when buying a bag of Quality Streets felt like picking up a lucky packet. Nestle has dialled in their combination so carefully that we found just two minor variations in the bags we checked.

That variation was one additional Toffee Penny, easily the least exciting Quality Street, in two of our bags. So, aside from the vague possibility of scoring one extra Toffee Penny in your bag, you’re unlikely to get any other surprises.

The bag makeup is very similar to what we found last year. This year, like last, your most common chocolates in a Quality Street bag are the Strawberry Delight, Caramel Swirl, Fudge, and Orange Creme.

You’ll also find four Toffee Fingers per bag.

There are just three of The Purple One, Milk Choc Block, Orange Chocolate Crunch, and the Green Triangle.

If your favourite is one of these four options, best you be quick - with just three par bags this year, they’ll disappear quickly.

Why there’s no variation anymore

How companies like Nestle, who now make Quality Streets, compile their bags is much more scientific than it first appears. It’s no accident that the company dials in exact percentages of each chocolate type into each bag - and any variation is much more a happy, statistically unlikely accident.

Companies like Nestle will typically employ the services of industrial engineers to assist with bag makeup. These engineers will work to establish which products are cheapest and easiest to manufacture and assist with factory setups. The chocolate company will then combine this with marketing considerations to ensure that both customers and finance departments are kept happy. 

As unhinged and fun as a purely random bag of Quality Streets might seem, if that churned out 10 of those near-toxic Coconut Eclairs, you’d likely be pretty unhappy. And if it churned out a bag full of the most expensive variations to produce - seemingly, the Green Triangle and Purple One - then head office may have a hard time projecting and raking in profits.

Still, in some countries, shoppers can buy entire bags of just their favourite Quality Streets. To prove our point, these cost more than if you surrender yourself to Nestle’s mix. 

At Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom, for example, you’ll pay the equivalent of R31.39 per 100g for a bag consisting purely of The Purple One - but R29.30 for a mixed bag. Either because the market here isn’t big enough, or they don’t trust us enough with nice things, this is not yet an option in South Africa.

In all, consistency seems like a pretty fair way to manage expectations. And hopefully, with this forewarning, you can be first to the bag to claim your favourites before all three in a bag disappear. 

However, the lack of surprise, shrinking bags, and climbing prices might have you thinking twice about whether - at the cost of around R2.83 for a single Quality Street, be it a Coconut Eclair or a Green Triangle - they’re really even worth it to begin with.

Share

Maybe it’s just me. But I hope, soon, it’ll be you, too.

These aren’t things that will change your life, but they are things that fascinate me. And they usually make for good fireside small talk starters. Sometimes, that’s enough to justify investing some of my time into them.

So rather than leave them as half-formed ideas and unfulfilled follow-ups on my to-do list, I’ve decided to release some of them here via a little Substack newsletter I’m calling Tiny Chart.

These aren’t half-baked ideas, either. I research them as meticulously as I would any editorial article. Of course, we’ll make mistakes - and we hope you’ll let us know. But we take huge pride in being ethical, informative, and on point.

Why trust Tiny Chart?

For at least the last 15 years, I’ve written freelance for dozens of global publications and interviewed on various radio stations. This is how I make my money, and you’ll find me out in the wild writing similar stories for multiple outlets.

I still love traditional media, but many of these stories are a little too niche for mainstream publications. From my time in the media industry, I think I know what people enjoy reading - and have some idea of how to package it. I put a lot of time into researching these stories - and am committed to presenting them as accurately and ethically as possible.

Get in touch

The best part about this kind of content is that it often evokes some sort of response - or leads to ideas of your own that you’ve encountered. So if that is the case, please send me an email or comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

If you’re an editor or radio and television producer and want to chat more about any of the stories on this site, please reach out.

Lastly, if you want to subscribe, please do. For now, this is original, comprehensively researched journalism available entirely for free on Substack and via an occasional newsletter, and I’d love to have you along for the ride.

Subscribe now

Thank you,

Tiny Chart 📊

For the first time, South Africa has a private day school break through the R240,000 barrier - for a single matric year. This is about three times more than the most expensive government schools in South Africa.

KwaZulu-Natal’s Kearsney College once again claims the top spot, if you exclude the non-standard models of a few international schools that have set up shop in South Africa.

Kearsney now charges parents R240,900 for a single matric year. This is about R60k short of the average annual salary in South Africa. And the equivalent of buying a new Polo Vivo Trendline.

And unless competing schools chase double-digit increases next year and Kearsney decides to be generous, there’ll be no catching it anytime soon.

Two new schools in the plus R200k club

In another first for 2024, two schools, both from Johannesburg, have joined Kearsney in the plus R200k club: St John’s College and Roedean School.

The top four most expensive day schools in South Africa remain unchanged from previous years, but a below-average increase from Clifton College and sizeable increases from King David and St Mary’s have shifted the top ten around.

St Mary’s, the second girls’ school in the top five, is followed by the Crawford College’s flagship Sandton branch.

Reddam’s most elite operations - in Waterfall and Helderfontein - are close behind, but still some way ahead of other branches in the private school’s own network.

From fifth position, things get a little tighter - there’s only R2,550 separating fifth from 10th. And at least half a dozen other elite schools are knocking on the top ten’s doors. 

The difference between first and tenth is big: R53,880, or, roughly, a seven-night stay in the Seychelles, flights included.

Subscribe now

Private day school increases for 2024

The biggest rand value increase for 2024 comes from Kearsney, where, thanks to a 7.2% increase, parents will pay R16,280 more than those in 2023 did.

St John’s and Rodean increased their fees by a slightly more modest 6.5%.

The biggest percentage increase for 2024 comes from Reddam, whose Waterfall and Helderfontein schools increased fees by 8%, or R13,975.

The average increase for SA’s most expensive day schools is 7.19% - and if all schools in the top 10 increase their fees by 7% or more for 2025, it’ll be a top 10 of R200k or more.

Share