Economically-ravaged Zimbabwe is counting its losses as skilled construction workers trek in droves to neighbouring South Africa to join the boom spawned by 2010 football World Cup preparations.
With three years to go before the first World Cup finals to be held in Africa, Zimbabwean architects, artisans and engineers are leaving the country for better-paying jobs with construction companies south of the border.
Tafadzwa Huni, an engineer with a state firm, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he would join the exodus this month, saying 30 of his colleagues had already left since January.
”The economic situation [at home] and the boom of opportunities offered by the hosting of the World Cup has forced me to go,” said Huni.
He said he got a job in Pretoria after responding to a newspaper advertisement but some of his colleagues were recruited by a South African agent who makes occasional trips to Harare and Bulawayo to scout for professionals.
Daniel Ncube, managing director of Ncube Burrow consulting engineers, told AFP the exodus of professionals was compromising local companies.
”Things are not looking good,” said Ncube, who has lost six engineers to South African companies since October.
”You train an engineer for two years and the next thing he is gone. They [South African firms] are taking almost everyone: artisans, engineers, architects and even bricklayers.”
The president of the Zimbabwe Institute for Engineers, Martin Manhuwa, was equally worried.
”We have a serious problem because of increased projects in South Africa because of the World Cup event,” he said.
”Instead of South Africa taking people here they can send some of their work here. At the rate at which people are going there, we might end up not having qualified people in the country.”
Manhuwa said the institute was conducting an audit of the numbers of engineers leaving.
To cope with the mounting demand for professionals, South African companies are placing recruitment advertisements in Zimbabwean newspapers and offering lucrative salaries and allowances.
”Be part of South Africa’s massive programme to develop the infrastructure of this diverse and rapidly developing country,” reads one advert in a local weekly.
”We offer competitive salaries of between $3 000 to $4 000 per month, negotiable.”
For Zimbabwean engineers earning two million Zimbabwean dollars a month ($8 000 at the official exchange rate but $80 on the parallel market — the actual value of their salaries) the offer is irresistible.
Ten stadiums in nine South African cities are to host the 2010 football extravaganza.
South Africa’s treasury has so far allocated R17,4-billion for World Cup projects, of which R8,4-billion is to go towards building and sprucing up stadiums.
An estimated 3,5-million Zimbabweans have migrated to South Africa, most illegally, amid an eight-year economic crisis characterised by 80% unemployment and skyrocketing inflation that reached 3 714% in April.
However, it is not all doom and gloom for the homegrown construction sector as locals are also benefiting from large-scale projects ahead of the World Cup.
Local cement firms are cashing in on the burgeoning demand for the commodity in South Africa.
And in October last year, China gave Zimbabwe a $5,8-million grant to refurbish the 60 000-seat National Sports Stadium to be used for practice sessions by visiting international teams in preparation for the World Cup. ‒ Sapa-AFP