Justin Pearce
While emigration may mean booming business for some, there is no clear evidence of a flood of people leaving the country in the past few months.
A phone around the diplomatic missions of the destinations popular with South African emigrants – — Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — showed that only the Canadians can report an increase in the numbers of South African emigrants reaching their shores in recent months.
Canadian High Commission representative Mark Davidson said he had noticed a steady increase in the number of South Africans leaving for Canada since August last year. The January 1996 figure was “50% to 60% higher than the figure for January 1995”.
But Australian and New Zealand representatives said immigration by South Africans has held steady for the past year. The British High Commission has no record of South African immigration, since most immigrants to Britain are those who can claim British citizenship by ancestry and need no special permits.
South Africa’s Central Statistical Services has no figures dating from later than January. While January’s emigration figure of around 1 100 was high, it is comparable with figures from the summer months in previous years. Emigration figures do, however, show a gradual increase over the second half of 1995, from 700 in June to 800 in November.
Claims that the police are processing 3 000 clearance certificates a month are also improbable. According to police representative Sharon Schutte, the police processed 7 509 certificates between January and May this year, as opposed to 19 174 in the whole of 1995.