Short-sighted politicians must make peace with SA’s diaspora

SALIVATING over the lucrative market of a burgeoning and confident India, the British establishment recently laid out more than the red carpet for its visiting prime minister. Narendra Modi was invited to address parliament, had lunch with the queen at Buckingham Palace and stayed at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence.

But the highlight of his visit was an event that was off the official itinerary. Modi addressed around 60 000 British-Indian business people at Wembley Stadium, who greeted him like a rock star.

Since taking office 18 months ago, Modi has made more than 20 such trips around the world, packing them in at places such as Madison Square Garden in New York, San Jose in California and Dubai.

In September, he visited some of the world’s biggest technology companies in Silicon Valley and met Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, Google’s Indian-born CEO.

Modi is mining an area that is often overlooked by many leaders: the diaspora. The Indian diaspora numbers around 35 million and Modi wants them to invest back home.

India and Israel have always actively tapped this resource, and their diasporas are well disposed towards, and even protective of, their respective homelands.

South Africa, however, is different. Emigration is a very sensitive subject; that hasn’t changed even with the fall of apartheid. Those who leave the country are generally seen as deserters and viewed with some hostility. People always feel forced or pushed to leave, rather than pulled or attracted to another country. They therefore either feel guilty or resentful towards their country or its people.

Leaving one’s country is not a step taken lightly. One leaves behind friends and relatives — not to mention the pleasant weather — uprooting one’s family for an uncertain future in foreign climes. It also means starting all over again, building one’s life and career.

What seems like greener pastures can often turn out to be a mirage. It can also lead to disagreement and separation among families. The divorce rate is said to be high among expats.

Emigration from South Africa has always come in waves. The 1976 riots induced an exodus of people fearful of social instability. In the early ’80s, young white men left in droves, fleeing conscription into an army that was being deployed to quell social unrest in black townships. Again in the run-up to the 1994 elections, violence was so bad that people thought Armageddon was upon us and many left the country.

Removal companies are again reporting a huge spike in inquiries from those seeking to emigrate.

People cite load-shedding, crime and corruption as reasons for wanting to leave.

There is a sense of impending doom, of infrastructure and standards slipping, and things falling apart. The ship of state seems rudderless, and many feel the urgent need to decamp before the seas get rougher.

An interesting phenomenon is that the majority of emigrants this time are Afrikaans-speaking; and it’s no longer an all-white exodus. A significant number of black South Africans are also leaving. Some older parents are also urging their children to emigrate as they see no future for them here.

The general attitude of the populace towards emigrants seems to be one of resigned equanimity or even a feeling of “good riddance”.

That’s the wrong view to take. These are highly skilled people — doctors, engineers, accountants and top-notch business people — who have been educated at great cost to the country and whom it cannot afford to lose.

Other countries are obviously delighted to simply have them on a platter. In some parts of Canada, the majority of doctors are South African.

Apart from significantly reducing our tax and skills bases, such a brain drain impoverishes the country in so many other ways. Much of the virulently anti-South African propaganda, for instance, emanates from former South Africans. A few years ago some Protea players were racially abused by our expatriates during a test match in Australia.

What exacerbates the situation is the fact that our education system is so poorly run it can hardly replace or replenish the skills we lose to emigration.

South Africa needs to make peace with its expatriate community. Immigration is a fact of modern life, but we have to reduce the pinpricks that force people to take such a drastic step.

Even after they have emigrated, we should — like India and Israel — try to harness people’s expertise to the country’s benefit. Many would be flattered if they were asked. Remove the bitterness and the bile from the issue, and get them to bat for South Africa from where they are. We should go in search of human talent the same way we try to attract foreign direct investment.

But our Achilles heel remains the stupidity of our politicians. Unless we sort out the politics, the haemorrhage will continue. What has stalled development in most of Africa, for instance, is the fact that its intelligentsia have simply voted with their feet. People with skills are highly mobile and have no patience for humbug or misrule.