SA's brain drain 'thrice the real number'
5 February 2001, 10:25
Qualified South Africans are leaving the country in droves, say migration experts who are advertising
in local media and actively recruiting professionals.
So high is the number of doctors leaving the country that the Department of Health has been forced to request overseas countries to stop actively recruiting SA doctors.
Health department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said
on Monday they were concerned about the number of doctors and nurses leaving the country.
Mngadi said they have had talks with countries like Canada to discourage them from recruiting professional medical staff.
Many South Africans go overseas promising to return once they have gained experience. But migration consultants say once people leave, they don't come back.
"They all intend to come back. They never do," said Dirkje Oberholzer, a migration consultant with Global Visas.
The brain drain has been going on for years, but shows signs of intensifying.
In 1999, for the sixth year in a row, South Africa had a net outflow of some 4 000 people - 8 402 emigrants against 3 669 immigrants, according to Statistics South Africa.
But those are official figures, and migration experts say the real number of those leaving is at least three times higher.
The University of Cape Town recently studied emigration to the five most popular destinations - Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - and reported that close to a quarter of a million South Africans had settled in those countries between 1989 and 1997.
Those leaving include information technology (IT) experts, engineers, senior business staff, doctors, nurses and teachers.
They flock to companies organising visas and job searches, whose advertisements feature in SA newspapers.
"You are seeing the cream of the intelligentsia leaving this country," said John Gambarana, a consultant with the International Immigration Alliance (IIA) in Johannesburg. "We are losing our best brains."
His office helps 35 to 40 families emigrate each month, and the opposition at Global Visas is processing about 55 families a month, up from 35 a year ago.
Both said the number of those wanting to leave has risen since 1996-98, a relatively steady period following "the great white fear" of 1994 when a black majority government came to power for the first time amid (unfulfilled) white expectations of a racial bloodbath.
"Every time something happens with the rand, or if there is a big crime splashed in the papers, the morning after we are flooded with calls and inquiries from people wanting to emigrate," said Oberholzer.
"We also had a lot of inquiries after the farm invasions and violence in Zimbabwe."
Those leaving all voice the same concerns, the consultants said: fear of the violent crime prevalent in SA; worries over the cost and quality of health and schooling; and uncertainty over job prospects for themselves and "affirmative action".
At the same time, said Gambarana, "they feel they are letting the side down; they feel they're deserting".
And the exodus is happening among all population groups.
"When I hold a seminar in Durban, I am besieged by Indian professionals; in Cape Town by disenchanted coloured people; in Johannesburg young black IT whiz kids want to go to the US," Gambarana said.
Marjory, a black teacher from Umtata, was committed after attending an IIA emigration seminar in Johannesburg.
"The environment (in South Africa) is not good. There is no possibility of upliftment, of progression," she said.
"I can't wait to go. If things go well, I don't intend to come back, but bring my family with me later on."
She hopes to settle in Britain before the end of the year.
The outflow is sharpened by an acute shortage of professionals in such developed countries as Britain and Ireland.
They are only too happy to allow South Africans to fill
the vacant posts at salaries undreamed of here.
The economic impact of the brain drain has not yet been analysed closely, but experts said it could be massive in a country restructuring its economy after the apartheid years, and where an HIV/Aids pandemic afflicting one in every 10 South Africans - 4,2 million people - is hitting qualified workers hard, especially teachers and nurses. - Sapa-AFP and Staff Reporter
in local media and actively recruiting professionals.
So high is the number of doctors leaving the country that the Department of Health has been forced to request overseas countries to stop actively recruiting SA doctors.
Health department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said
on Monday they were concerned about the number of doctors and nurses leaving the country.
Mngadi said they have had talks with countries like Canada to discourage them from recruiting professional medical staff.
Many South Africans go overseas promising to return once they have gained experience. But migration consultants say once people leave, they don't come back.
"They all intend to come back. They never do," said Dirkje Oberholzer, a migration consultant with Global Visas.
The brain drain has been going on for years, but shows signs of intensifying.
In 1999, for the sixth year in a row, South Africa had a net outflow of some 4 000 people - 8 402 emigrants against 3 669 immigrants, according to Statistics South Africa.
But those are official figures, and migration experts say the real number of those leaving is at least three times higher.
The University of Cape Town recently studied emigration to the five most popular destinations - Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - and reported that close to a quarter of a million South Africans had settled in those countries between 1989 and 1997.
Those leaving include information technology (IT) experts, engineers, senior business staff, doctors, nurses and teachers.
They flock to companies organising visas and job searches, whose advertisements feature in SA newspapers.
"You are seeing the cream of the intelligentsia leaving this country," said John Gambarana, a consultant with the International Immigration Alliance (IIA) in Johannesburg. "We are losing our best brains."
His office helps 35 to 40 families emigrate each month, and the opposition at Global Visas is processing about 55 families a month, up from 35 a year ago.
Both said the number of those wanting to leave has risen since 1996-98, a relatively steady period following "the great white fear" of 1994 when a black majority government came to power for the first time amid (unfulfilled) white expectations of a racial bloodbath.
"Every time something happens with the rand, or if there is a big crime splashed in the papers, the morning after we are flooded with calls and inquiries from people wanting to emigrate," said Oberholzer.
"We also had a lot of inquiries after the farm invasions and violence in Zimbabwe."
Those leaving all voice the same concerns, the consultants said: fear of the violent crime prevalent in SA; worries over the cost and quality of health and schooling; and uncertainty over job prospects for themselves and "affirmative action".
At the same time, said Gambarana, "they feel they are letting the side down; they feel they're deserting".
And the exodus is happening among all population groups.
"When I hold a seminar in Durban, I am besieged by Indian professionals; in Cape Town by disenchanted coloured people; in Johannesburg young black IT whiz kids want to go to the US," Gambarana said.
Marjory, a black teacher from Umtata, was committed after attending an IIA emigration seminar in Johannesburg.
"The environment (in South Africa) is not good. There is no possibility of upliftment, of progression," she said.
"I can't wait to go. If things go well, I don't intend to come back, but bring my family with me later on."
She hopes to settle in Britain before the end of the year.
The outflow is sharpened by an acute shortage of professionals in such developed countries as Britain and Ireland.
They are only too happy to allow South Africans to fill
the vacant posts at salaries undreamed of here.
The economic impact of the brain drain has not yet been analysed closely, but experts said it could be massive in a country restructuring its economy after the apartheid years, and where an HIV/Aids pandemic afflicting one in every 10 South Africans - 4,2 million people - is hitting qualified workers hard, especially teachers and nurses. - Sapa-AFP and Staff Reporter
Durban
