1 million people left a South African province because of crime and unemployment

An estimated 981,943 people moved from the Eastern Cape to other provinces due to unemployment, crime, and other social problems caused by poor economic growth.

Inflows from other provinces and abroad partially offset those departures, leaving the province with a net migration loss of 587,658 people.

Andrew Whitfield, a member of the Eastern Cape Legislature, said the Eastern Cape’s economic decline drives skilled residents away.

This skills migration, in turn, caused further economic decline, which has resulted in a downward spiral in the province.

“The Eastern Cape is exporting the very people it needs to build its future,” Whitfield said in a press statement.

He said that the scale of this outward migration reflects the depth of the Eastern Cape’s economic decline.

The Eastern Cape’s official unemployment rate reached 44.6%. The broader measure that includes the potential labour force stood at 54.4%.

In the Western Cape, where many of the people from the Eastern Cape move to, the corresponding rates were 19.6% and 24.8%.

This means that many people from the Eastern Cape leave because the province fails to provide jobs, opportunities, and to get towns and cities working for all.

“People leave their homes, families, and communities because they believe their prospects will be better elsewhere.”

“They move to find work, build careers, start businesses, study, and secure a better future for their children.”

The result is a self-perpetuating cycle. Weak economic growth and unemployment push skilled and ambitious residents out of the province.

Their departure reduces the pool of professionals, artisans, entrepreneurs, graduates, and experienced workers available to grow the economy.

He is now promoting a debate to develop a provincial strategy that positions the Eastern Cape as a destination for talent, skills, entrepreneurship, and investment.

Whitfield believes that the pattern can be reversed if the right policies are put in place to stabilise local government and ensure economic growth.

“We should focus on talent attraction and retention so that we can build a province in which people want to live and invest,” he said.

He said that the Eastern Cape must reposition itself as a province to which skilled people, entrepreneurs, investors, and families choose to move.

“The Eastern Cape offers a lower cost of living, established universities, ports, airports, industrial capacity, and agricultural potential,” he said.

“It also has extraordinary natural assets and coastal cities with the potential to offer an excellent quality of life.”

He said that to make the province more attractive, municipalities must provide the stable foundation on which economic growth depends.

“Fixing local government is therefore central to reversing the migration crisis,” Whitfield said.

“The Eastern Cape must stop managing its decline and start competing for its future by building pathways to prosperity for all.”