lol....

You could very easily reverse that transaction...

I would invest in you.  However,  i would also want to know more business information, expected launches, testing, and what prospective dividends would be.  And a model of something would get me to invest in you more likely.  I would also request a phone number of yours and some kind of picture identification if im going to invest the full amount of $1k usd or more.

^^^ yes completely agreed.  Keeping a small amount on an internet and then the rest on a secure platform would be the best option.  In order to limit the amount of viable assets that could be stolen.

you could make them private by having people contact the person before the tourney.  The host would then take the code and send it to people that pre-registered with them.

I refuse to use such services due to the facts that you just pointed out.  Also to the fact that they could just *disappear* one day with all of the bitcoins with the wallet files.

I keep my wallet file encrypted on a flash drive. however i also have a second wallet for my trading.  I wouldn't trust these sites as far as i can throw them.

hmm you could attempt to find another person in SA that also is interested in bitcoins and sell bitcoins to them in person for an amount specified by you or have them do a bank transfer to your account and then you send them the bitcoins or vice versa.  You could also attempt to exchange the points for an amazon or visa prepaid card(even though its not cash as you wanted).  I don't know if the visa's work in south africa (sorry)  This could be a temporary fix to your problem until a more suitable exchange comes to your country!

I plan on taking roughly $500usd and invest in bitcoins see how it go's.  Really just for the fun of it see how much money i can make or how much i can lose.

Probably, after a month or so of having fun i will probably start going to meetups in NYC as i see that they have a group and see whats going on.  may start selling them for cash...