South Africa plans new measures to lure its overseas academics and skilled workers back home as the country seeks to tackle a skills gap that threatens economic development, a government minister said on Tuesday.
An economic giant on the African continent, South Africa nevertheless faces massive skills shortages in critical areas, including nursing, teaching and engineering.
Many skilled South Africans, both white and black, have left the country in recent years for reasons ranging from fears of high crime to new policies aimed at boosting black participation in the economy that often block white job applicants.
The skills shortage is seen as a major stumbling block to faster economic expansion.
At a news briefing at Parliament on Tuesday, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the government continued to try attract South Africans living and working abroad back home as well as to improve local education.
”It’s something that I believe we also need to attend to in education, but I think we must do it in a flexible and pragmatic way,” said Pandor during a briefing on South Africa’s skills development strategy.
Pandor said she intended to implement a system that would enable local universities to bring home South African academics working abroad to jumpstart local research programmes.
She said the government would put additional funds into research and upgrade laboratories on campuses to provide returning researchers with world-class facilities.
”We’re already talking to academics about this — running seminars in South Africa, six-month lecturing to post-graduate students. So you begin then to expand your intellectual pool,” she said.
The government is also attempting to lure back retired engineers and other professionals.
South Africa’s skills shortage is already hitting the government’s multibillion-rand infrastructure development strategy, including the building of stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Crime
Meanwhile, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said on Tuesday that crime is causing severe harm to South Africa’s image abroad, crippling the tourism industry, and requires urgent attention.
”Effectively strengthening the fight against crime, as promised by President [Thabo] Mbeki … is now more important than ever, as we are rapidly losing out on creating new job opportunities within the tourism industry, IFP spokesperson Connie Zikalala said.
A new report suggested crime is the main reason for the loss of 125 000 new job opportunities within the tourism industry in 2006.
”The looming 2010 Soccer World Cup will attract close to a half-a-million visitors, which in turn will create thousands of job opportunities, but if tourists feel that South Africa is not safe enough to travel to, the dream of job creation and the economic boost that we envisage, will be sadly lost,” Zikalala said.
Public health
Last year it was reported that Southern Africa’s public health services are in a state of emergency. Bad pay and working conditions, plus the impact of HIV/Aids, are bleeding the system of its most valuable resource: people.
With the cost of training a general practice doctor estimated to be $60 000, and that of training a medical auxiliary at $12 000, the African Union estimated that low-income countries subsidise high-income countries to the tune of $500-million a year through the loss of their health workers.
Since 2000 in Malawi, more than 100 nurses had applied each year for registration to work abroad. Others have gone abroad without paperwork, and more still have left to work in private clinics or for NGOs in Malawi.
With 28,6 nurses per 100 000 people, the country has one of the worst nurse-to-patient ratios in Africa. In Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia nurses are moving out at a similar rate. — Reuters, Sapa