Peter Deane, 47, never imagined he'd be back in the dating game again, but when his wife died two years ago, he found himself alone.
"After a while, I realised that I'd have to dig myself out of my hole and get dating again, which was quite daunting."
"I registered with the Datingbuzz website and sent off a few emails.
"I met some interesting and also some strange people," he says.
"Some women wanted to talk marriage straight away, and that was not for me. I wanted to extend my social circle."
Then he met Petro Taute, 42, a Johannesburg divorcee with three adult children, and they corresponded via email.
"What I liked about Petro was that she was open and honest from the beginning, and that is imperative in an online relationship.
"She wanted the same things I wanted, she was in the same place as I was - alone with grown-up children."
On a business trip to Zimbabwe, Peter stopped in Johannesburg and met Petro at the airport.
"We clicked right from the start," he said, stopping on the way back from Zimbabwe too.
They've been dating for about five months now, with flights, visits, emails and astronomical telephone bills being the essentials of the relationship.
"My advice to other online daters is this: Don't fall into the trap of reading too much into the emails. Don't give too much personal information away - like your address or place of work. Be totally honest - and if you catch the other person being dishonest, end the relationship.
"Meet in a public place for lunch or coffee - believe me, there are scary people out there and it's not only women who are at risk."