by James Lamont, The Financial Times, 23 July 2002
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The fortunes of the South African rand are frequently up for discussion at Nando’s restaurant. The conversation would perhaps seem inconsequential, were diners in the eatery not thousands of miles from home, pondering the future from the London suburb of Putney.
Young South Africans in this overseas branch of their home country’s fast food franchise debate whether making a return to the poolside lifestyle they have left behind is better than slogging it out under the low skies of London.
The same accents and the same conversations are to be heard in Calgary in Canada, Perth in Australia and Wellington in New Zealand.
Emigration has emerged as one of the greatest challenges to post-apartheid South Africa. Skilled South Africans find it easy to work abroad, where their skills are eagerly snapped-up. This flow is now seriously undermining the country’s efforts to rise above 3 per cent economic growth.
A University of South Africa (Unisa) study estimates that 39,000 South Africans left the country in 1999 to join the 1 .6m already living abroad. The chance of more joining them is high. About 70 per cent of skilled South Africans consider emigrating; an estimated 20 per cent has already left.
The brain-drain costs South Africa R2.Sbn ($250m, €250m, £159m) a year, with the loss of each skilled professional reckoned to destroy as many as 10 unskilled jobs.
Statistics South Africa, the government’s data agency, says 10,262 people emigrated from the country in the first 10 months of last year. In 2000 it was 9,908, though independent researchers say the real figure is three times as high.
The loss - particularly among young people - is felt most acutely in engineering, medicine, accounting and financial services. A survey by PwC, now renamed Monday, the auditing firm, reveals that the banking industry considers a shortage of skills one of the greatest threats to its future.
A World Bank study of manufacturing industry in Johannesburg also shows anxiety about finding appropriate skills in the local labour market, while about 35 per cent of doctors who graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand’s medical school in the 1990s have since emigrated.
The causes of this exodus are many. Some are propelled abroad by the uncertainties of majority rule, while others cite fears about crime, the Aids pandemic, massive unemployment, the government’s policy of affirmative action favouring black South Africans, corruption, and declining standards of healthcare and education.
"Violent
crime is the reason why 60 per cent of emigrants are leaving
South Africa. During the 1990s, approximately 250,000 South
Africans were murdered," says Johann van Rooyen, the author
of the Unisa study.
Others are tempted by the opportunities thrown up by South
Africa's reintegration into international business after
apartheid-era isolation. Rand salaries make South Africans cheap
to hire, while sharp falls in the value of the currency have
increased white middle class anxiety about their future spending
power relative to their European and US cousins.
Favoured destinations are Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US,
and the United Kingdom. A host of services, advertised in local
newspapers and on websites, are on hand to assist South Africans
to pack up and start anew.
However, many do not need assistance because about 800,000 South
Africans hold British passports and are able to enter the UK and
work.
Another swathe can extend their stay in the UK on the strength of
British ancestry. Their first step is to gain residency after
four years. After a further two, the emigrant can claim a British
passport.
"South Africa is shedding skills at a worrying rate to its
global competitors. These countries have no compunction about
creaming off skilled people from other countries," says
Jonathan Crush of the Southern Africa Migration Project.
The government is uncertain about how to respond.
Former president Nelson Mandela and senior cabinet ministers have
made emigration an issue of patriotism. They show little patience
with grumbling faint hearts looking for better lives elsewhere
and have used exchange controls to deter people from leaving.
But they have not matched this with efforts to attract skills to
the country, which saw only 3,053 immigrants in the first 10
months of last year.
The use of immigration under white rule as a tool of racial
domination weighs heavily on the ruling African National
Congress. It would rather have local companies train blacks to
fill the gap left by emigrating professionals than encourage the
immigration of foreigners.
Greg Mills, director of the Johannesburg-based South African
Institute of International Affairs, says: "If South Africa
is to enjoy widespread, long-term economic growth, it has to open
its doors to foreign skills."