Exodus of skills magnifies crisis in Zimbabwe
March 30, 2008
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe is experiencing an unprecedented flight of skills from both the private and public sectors to countries such as South Africa, Botswana, the UK, Australia and the US.
The intensifying brain drain is fuelled by a crumbling economy and increasing demand for skilled labour in South Africa.
This is according to a report by the Johannesburg-based Centre for Development and Enterprise, which was released this week following a workshop held at the end of last year.
Zimbabwe is in the grips of debilitating hyperinflation, with consumer prices rocketing at an absurd pace of more than 100 000 percent a year, the report notes.
The crisis in South Africa's neighbour is characterised by an economy that has been shrinking by 4 percent a year during the past four years, 80 percent of the population living below the poverty datum line, and a 70 percent unemployment rate in the formal sector.
After independence, the country's first wave of skills migration during the early 1980s overwhelmingly comprised white Zimbabweans.
"For example, between 1980 and 1983 the country lost 19 300 skilled and professional workers, mostly to South Africa, Australia and Britain. Most of the vacancies were filled by returning black Zimbabweans with good qualifications and experience," says the report.
"The second wave, during the 1990s, consisted of the departure of skilled blacks and whites, triggered by the adverse effects of the economic structural adjustment programme introduced by the government.
"The third wave began soon after the constitutional referendum and general election of 2000."
According to the report, the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre, a Harare-based parastatal, concluded in 2003 that about 490 000 skilled Zimbabweans of all colours had left because the weakening economy limited their employment prospects.
This figure has since increased to more than 800 000, although a significant proportion of these skilled migrants are not employed as professionals in their destination countries.
The report cites studies that reveal that many qualified Zimbabweans are doing jobs which do not use their skills, such as waiting on tables, or for which they are vastly overqualified.
The increasing loss of trained workers to the diaspora has eroded the skilled human resource base the country needs for economic and social development.
For instance, the health care system in Zimbabwe is experiencing a human and financial resources crisis.
"A 2003 study estimated that more than 80 percent of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, radiologists and therapists trained since 1980 had left the country, and that by 2003 Zimbabwe had lost more than 2 100 medical doctors and 1 950 certified nurses, mostly to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Britain and Australia.
"The problem has been compounded by the fact that, due to staff shortages, the University of Zimbabwe medical training hospital in Harare has been forced to reduce its annual intake of medical students from 120 to 70."
While South Africa is the main receiving country in the region, the report says that current policies still make it difficult for skilled people to enter the country legally, as procedures are marked by complicated and demanding permits and quota systems.
Simultaneously, it says that migration from Zimbabwe holds potential benefits for South Africa in the form of an additional pool of skilled labour who can alleviate the significant skills shortages hampering its economy.
|
|
