HUNDREDS of thousands of people have left the Eastern Cape for greener pastures since 2006 in what is the country’s largest migration from a single province during this time.
And statistics show that between 2006 and 2011, the province will have lost a number of people equivalent to about twice the population of King William’s Town.
Poor job prospects and recessionary blues have been blamed for the recent flood of people leaving the Eastern Cape, although population figures released by Statistics SA this week show the province has been bleeding people at a steady rate for the last decade.
“Teachers, and health professionals, the skilled and professionally mobile, would not want to work in the old Transkei and Ciskei areas,” Rhodes University economist David Fryer said yesterday.
Although the actual population of the province has increased to just over 6.7 million, it’s the migration figures – with more people leaving than arriving – that are troubling.
Fryer said that while the private sector might not be hit as hard, parastatals like Telkom and Eskom, and small municipalities, were finding it hard to keep skilled workers.
“The brain drain is due to working conditions, especially in the areas that have fallen behind; the remote areas where services have collapsed,” he said.
Young professionals have also flowed from the province, in search of better job opportunities and what they perceive as better standards of living elsewhere.
Cape Town Woolworths logistics officer Sikelelwa Silwana said that when she moved from East London five years ago it had been because of a better financial offer.
“I chose this job over an offer in East London because it offered me a better salary,” she said.
Others said they had left the province in the last couple of years as the recession started to hit.
Zoleka Blayi, who works in a retail store in Pretoria, left a job in Mthatha. “I didn’t want to stick around until I got retrenched, so I ventured into Gauteng and landed myself a job within a month.”
According to Johannesburg statistician Lize Snyman, the trend is set to continue.
“Employment hasn’t been growing much, so the outward migration from rural provinces like the Eastern Cape is set to continue.”
National furniture removal companies also confirmed the province’s outward flow, saying Gauteng was the preferred destination, with the Western Cape and KwaZulu- Natal following closely .
Southernwood’s Brillen Business Solutions, which also offers furniture removal services, said professionals cited better job opportunities as the reason for leaving.
“I have moved doctors and engineers to KZN and Gauteng, and the numbers have only increased,” owner Allan Samaita said.
At Port Elizabeth’s Sinethemba Removals, sales manager Nokwanda Mbanqolo said their figures had climbed steadily over the past year, with a 20% increase in removal requests to other provinces from December last year to March.
“It’s more the professionals who are leaving, and they claim to have found better jobs, or are unemployed and are hoping for luck in other cities, like Cape Town,” she said.
Stuttafords Van Lines in East London said their customers moved in the direction of Cape Town, which, branch manager Anton Harris said, had always been the preferred destination. “We can only put it down to people chasing money,” he said.
According to Stats SA figures, only 13.5% of the country’s 49.99million people live in the Eastern Cape, down from 14.3 percent in 2001. Figures show that between 2006 and 2011, 211600 people overall would have migrated from the province, more than twice the estimated 100000 population website Wikipedia says King William’s Town has. — Daily Dispatch
And statistics show that between 2006 and 2011, the province will have lost a number of people equivalent to about twice the population of King William’s Town.
Poor job prospects and recessionary blues have been blamed for the recent flood of people leaving the Eastern Cape, although population figures released by Statistics SA this week show the province has been bleeding people at a steady rate for the last decade.
“Teachers, and health professionals, the skilled and professionally mobile, would not want to work in the old Transkei and Ciskei areas,” Rhodes University economist David Fryer said yesterday.
Although the actual population of the province has increased to just over 6.7 million, it’s the migration figures – with more people leaving than arriving – that are troubling.
Fryer said that while the private sector might not be hit as hard, parastatals like Telkom and Eskom, and small municipalities, were finding it hard to keep skilled workers.
“The brain drain is due to working conditions, especially in the areas that have fallen behind; the remote areas where services have collapsed,” he said.
Young professionals have also flowed from the province, in search of better job opportunities and what they perceive as better standards of living elsewhere.
The Western Cape is the most favoured destination for Eastern Cape migrants, followed by Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Cape Town Woolworths logistics officer Sikelelwa Silwana said that when she moved from East London five years ago it had been because of a better financial offer.
“I chose this job over an offer in East London because it offered me a better salary,” she said.
Others said they had left the province in the last couple of years as the recession started to hit.
Zoleka Blayi, who works in a retail store in Pretoria, left a job in Mthatha. “I didn’t want to stick around until I got retrenched, so I ventured into Gauteng and landed myself a job within a month.”
According to Johannesburg statistician Lize Snyman, the trend is set to continue.
“Employment hasn’t been growing much, so the outward migration from rural provinces like the Eastern Cape is set to continue.”
National furniture removal companies also confirmed the province’s outward flow, saying Gauteng was the preferred destination, with the Western Cape and KwaZulu- Natal following closely .
Southernwood’s Brillen Business Solutions, which also offers furniture removal services, said professionals cited better job opportunities as the reason for leaving.
“I have moved doctors and engineers to KZN and Gauteng, and the numbers have only increased,” owner Allan Samaita said.
At Port Elizabeth’s Sinethemba Removals, sales manager Nokwanda Mbanqolo said their figures had climbed steadily over the past year, with a 20% increase in removal requests to other provinces from December last year to March.
“It’s more the professionals who are leaving, and they claim to have found better jobs, or are unemployed and are hoping for luck in other cities, like Cape Town,” she said.
Stuttafords Van Lines in East London said their customers moved in the direction of Cape Town, which, branch manager Anton Harris said, had always been the preferred destination. “We can only put it down to people chasing money,” he said.
According to Stats SA figures, only 13.5% of the country’s 49.99million people live in the Eastern Cape, down from 14.3 percent in 2001. Figures show that between 2006 and 2011, 211600 people overall would have migrated from the province, more than twice the estimated 100000 population website Wikipedia says King William’s Town has. — Daily Dispatch
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