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LABOUR: Reversing South Africa’s Brain Drain

Peyman Pejman

DUBAI, May 28 2007 (IPS) - The short, black and white film projected on a white board in a room filled with about 200 South African expatriates had an unambiguous message – if you want a better South Africa, come back home and help build it.

The open-house gathering, last week, was organised by ‘Homecoming Revolution,’ a semi-governmental, non-profit organisation backed by the private sector. Its managing director, Martine Schaffer, explained to IPS that South Africa faced a global war for talent. ”We need South Africans to help rebuild their country,” she said.

There are no accurate figures on how many of South Africa’s 36 million citizens live outside the country; the figure is vaguely put at hundreds of thousands, mostly living in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. What is clear is that if South Africa is to maintain its strong economic growth, it will need skilled professionals in large numbers.

According to Schaffer’s group, the brain drain can be reversed either by attracting qualified immigrants or, better still, encouraging qualified South Africans, currently living abroad, to return.

The Middle East with its estimated 100,000 South African expatriates – the bulk of them living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – is considered the ideal hunting ground for the initiative. Although ‘come back home’ road shows have been held in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, last week’s meeting was the first effort mounted in this part of the world.

South African officials, buoyed by the prospect of their country hosting the 2010 World Cup, feel the time is right to send out the message that the country’s dark days of post-apartheid crime, that triggered an exodus of the white population are over. According to them new opportunites are building up and there is no more ‘reverse discrimination’ against whites.

“The reality today is that if you are black, young, and male, your chances of being affected by crime is much higher,” speaker Guy Lundy, a futurist and author, told the overwhelmingly white audience. Whites constitute most of the South African expatriates.

The thrust of the message is that no matter what the public perception, crime statistics in South Africa are showing encouraging trends. While there is one white for every 11 blacks in the population, of every 33 murder victims only one is white, Lundy told the participants.

Safety aside, economy and employment figures were the top selling points.

Speakers said South Africa has had 33 quarters of positive economic growth, the highest in the country’s history, and while blacks still account for 31 percent of the unemployed, the rate for the whites was only five percent.

The South African government plans to spend over 400 billion rands (56 billion US dollars) before the 2010 World Cup on infrastructure projects. “We are looking for skilled positions in anything like engineering, construction, finance, management,” said Vicki Marias-Swanepoel, a general manager with Professional Assignments Group, a recruitment agency represented at the event.

Organisers say they have no idea how many of the estimated 1.1 million skilled people South Africa is trying to attract by 2010 have agreed to return as a result of several ‘Homecoming Revolution’ meetings already held around the world.

Participants in the Dubai event ranged from those who have already decided to return to those who have no intention of going back any time soon. Many attended just to stay informed.

“My wife and I decided a couple of years ago that we are going back and I am just here to network,” said Mark Kotze, who has been working in the Middle East for 10 years. “Money is definitely an attraction. When you look at the standard of living, I know of no other place where you can get the same bang for the buck.”

Unlike many other white South Africans, he said he was not concerned about reverse discrimination. “I think if you are a skilled white, in your 30s-40s, especially with international experience, you have nothing to worry about. If you are a white unskilled, or in your 50s, then, yes, you might,” he said.

Not everyone is that optimistic. While the crime rates may have gone down over the past decade, South Africa’s capital Johannesburg was, not long ago, dubbed “the murder capital”. Any decline in crime rates that has taken place is still not encouraging enough, expatriates here said.

“When you have had people you know robbed at gun point or killed, it is not much comfort to say the economy is improving,” said one participant who asked not to be named.

Many point out that requirements for entrepreneurs, such as that new businesses must have a black partner, was not the right way to go about boosting the economy.

“It does not help to say come home and make money if you are also telling me who to hire and how many whites and blacks and coloured people I should have,” said one undecided expatriate. ”I am just not convinced yet.”