ICTJ in the News

June 4, 2008

ANALYSIS-S.Africa unemployment seen keeping tensions high

Reuters

By Stella Mapenzauswa

JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (Reuters) - Tensions that triggered a backlash against foreigners last month, leaving more than 60 dead, are likely to simmer for years as South Africa's poor domestic skills base forces it to rely on migrant labour.

Mobs armed with knives, stones and in some cases guns, set upon mostly African immigrants in a two-week orgy of violence that left more than 100,000 people displaced in the economic heartland of Gauteng, as well kwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces.

The crowds said they were venting their anger at rising crime blamed on foreigners, whom they also accused of "stealing" jobs they feel should be held by locals.

President Thabo Mbeki's government dismissed the xenophobic attacks - which dented South Africa's investment image and pressured the rand currency - as the work of criminals.

But analysts say the attacks partly reflect rising frustration among locals who have watched foreigners - some of them in the country illegally - take jobs because they are either prepared to accept less pay or are better qualified.

"Obviously unemployment has played a role, given the fairly slow growth in total employment that we've had over the last 10 years or so," said Rian le Roux, head of economic research at Old Mutual Investment Group.

"Some illegal immigrants have found jobs here and I think South Africans have become upset about that. They (foreigners) may be better educated, and because they are more desperate I think, they may have been more productive," le Roux added.

Zimbabweans form the largest immigrant group in South Africa, accounting for 60 percent of the 5 million migrants living in the country of about 50 million.

These include trained teachers, nurses, doctors and other professionals who have fled an economic meltdown back home largely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's government and shown in over 165,000 percent inflation which has wiped out salaries.

LOCAL SKILLS LIMITED

The South African Qualifications Authority, which analyses local skills needs, says out of 17,086 evaluations it performed between January and September last year, 57 percent were for Zimbabweans seeking work permits.

"Our management skills particularly at the middle management level are relatively limited. That is something that one can set right in the longer term but it takes time to do so," said Servaas van der Berg, a professor of economics at the University of Stellenbosch.

"For instance, if one talks about the information technology sector, the health field and specialities, even education, I can hardly see us dealing with skills shortages without at least some import of crucial skills," he told Reuters.

Fourteen years since the end of the apartheid system which marginalised majority blacks, figures show that about 20 percent of South Africa's population remains illiterate.

The government last year approved 6.1 billion rand in funding to enable 4.7 million adults to achieve basic literacy and numeracy by 2012.

The government said last week it would recruit 2,000 foreign teachers during the next two years to help ease a domestic shortage, sparking criticism from local unions who said the country must focus on producing its own teachers.

"The violence that has taken the lives of ... African immigrants here ... grows out of a desperate competition for jobs," said social commentator Alex Boraine.

"Many South Africans believe their own, limited opportunities for economic security are threatened by ... immigrants," Boraine, chairman of the International Center for Transitional Justice, wrote on the centre's website.

Official unemployment dipped to 23 percent in September last year, but some analysts put the real figure much higher.

Although South Africa's employment squeeze and the population's lack of education and skills are largely a legacy of the apartheid era's neglect of majority blacks, analysts say it is also testament to the slow pace of economic reforms since apartheid's demise.

The ruling ANC has rejected suggestions that its policy shortcomings since assuming power in 1994 fuelled the xenophobia, but Finance Minister Trevor Manuel conceded at the weekend that the violence exposed the government's failure to spread economic gains more evenly.

Growth averaged more than 5 percent for the past four years but critics say this has not filtered down to the poor.

"I think there's a general level of frustration building up with the have-nots in this country, that get promised delivery that never arrives. That get promised jobs, but those jobs never materialise," said ETM economic analyst George Glynos.

"You want to start with trying to make your general population more employable and the only way you can do that really is through education and skills development."

"For me that's the cornerstone of any longer term strategy to try and avoid any social unrest like this in the future," he told Reuters. (Editing by Ian Jones)