The Pap & Sous Column
On Friday, a local radio station said goodbye to a young co-presenter. This co-presenter has just completed her studies as a physicist and is leaving for London. It got me thinking, a lot of young South Africans are leaving South Africa. My son left some years back to sail in the Mediterranean, and eventually, after the adventures were over, he has settled into a job and lifestyle in London. I have friends whose children live in London. I know of a young Xhosa woman who left the country to play music in one of the cities in the UK.
Now, on the one hand, this is fantastic because it represents great opportunities for young people. The world is open to them. But the other side is the more difficult part to chat about, and that is South Africa — what is chasing away young South Africans from the country?
Well, it all starts with the economic failure boldly led by the tycoon politicians and their sycophantic jobs-for-pals scheme. That means, in short, joblessness for young South Africans. It’s terrifying and tragic when you hear young people say they’ve given up trying to find a job, and these are graduates. What the heck did they spend three or four years at university for? Heartbreaking stuff.
The corporate sector doesn’t seem to have programmes to keep young people in the country. In fact, the government doesn’t. I mean, that’s just a given. What is corporate South Africa doing to keep youngsters? Who knows? It’s difficult to tell behind the veneer of corporate propaganda. But remember, they are ensnared with this whole racial employment policy enforced by the government, so it makes things difficult.
The corporate sector is also in a mess. I mean, you see what is happening. Woolworths killing off a supplier, a Belgian chocolate maker. Is this how you treat suppliers in this country? Pronutro has reformulated its product and it’s a fiasco. My daughter said to me, “Is this food?” Think of it. Is this really food? Pronutro is now so bad you wouldn’t even give it to an animal. Not a horse, not a dog, nobody. It all seems like erosion of local private sector competence.
And then there are other problems with the corporate sector. They are battling against foreign imports and constantly cutting back staff. So where is the room to take on new people? Yes, there are volunteer programmes, but how long can you volunteer for? Volunteering is not a career. When you’re young, you want experience, but a little money in your pocket helps with your dignity and your pride.
No, everybody’s selling the youngsters short in this country.
I wish I had some success stories. It’s sad, you know, you go around and just see all these young people in supermarket jobs, bottle store jobs, car guard jobs and security jobs. People have to scrape by. But it’s bad when those who have education cannot apply that education in the country they grew up in. It’s laughable to train people at universities and colleges only for them to go and work in other countries.
Now if you were a government official, you would look at this and ask: how do you stop them leaving? But that would require leadership that understands ordinary people’s lives, not political tycoons who have never lived in the lower strata of society.
And what is killing the economy, the morale and the country itself is this endless racial and neo-Marxist claptrap from politicians. I know of one man whose daughter was refused entry to train as a medical doctor at a university. So he closed down his business employing 250 people and left the country for another nation — which I won’t name — where she could study medicine.
Come on. This is a vicious way to treat people.
Yes, there are push factors, like the problems in the country, but there are also pull factors: exciting work, functioning economies, safety, travel, diversity, opportunity and the chance to build a future without constantly fighting systems that don’t work.
It’s tough being away from the country you love and missing it. But many young South Africans have now been abroad for years, and perhaps the young physicist leaving our shores shortly will have a wonderful life in the UK.
Yet it still remains sad that South Africa’s greatest export is its young talented people.
And the numbers back it up. Analysts estimate that roughly 70 to 80 South Africans leave the country every single day, many of them young, educated and skilled. Surveys have shown that nearly half of better-educated young South Africans are seriously considering emigration, while youth unemployment sits at a staggering 45% to 50%.
That is the real heartbreak. These are not people with no ambition. These are talented graduates, technicians, musicians, engineers, healthcare workers and entrepreneurs. The very people the country spends years educating are often the same people building lives in London, Perth, Toronto, Amsterdam or Auckland.
One cannot blame them. But somewhere in all of this, South Africa has to ask itself a very uncomfortable question: why does one of our greatest exports continue to be our own children?
