Despite South African emigration levels showing a continued downward trend, new research shows that KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of business owners who have given serious consideration to leaving the country permanently in the past 12 months.
This is one of the key local findings of the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) for the fourth quarter (of 2011) released in Durban this morning.
It revealed that 27 percent of KwaZulu-Natal business owners have seriously considered emigrating. SA’s high crime rate and political uncertainty were cited as the main reasons.
In comparison, 23 percent of Gauteng’s business owners, 19 percent in the Eastern Cape and just 11 percent in the Western Cape have considered emigration.
Deepak Nagar, managing partner at Grant Thornton Durban and incoming national chairman for Grant Thornton South Africa, said the IBR provided quarterly insight into the views and expectations of more than 11000 businesses surveyed annually across 39 economies.
He said of this figure about 600 business owners were surveyed in SA, a third of which from KwaZulu-Natal. He said besides crime and the country’s political climate, service delivery and strict regulations such as problems related to the new Companies Act were issues that concern entrepreneurs and business owner most.
“On a more positive note the report reveals that emigration levels in SA have continued to show a downward trend since we started monitoring this issue. The national rolling average in 2008 saw 32 percent of SA business owners seriously considering emigration compared to just 20 percent recorded in this fourth quarter survey for 2011,” said Nagar.
The IBR revealed that the increased cost of security was the biggest financial burden for KZN businesses. An alarming 48 percent of privately held business owners in the province said that the increased costs of security, resulting from crime in the country, was a major financial burden.
“This is the highest percentage recorded of all South African regions… It is worrying that nearly half of the province’s business owners need to continually invest in security for their organisations, as a result of threats to personal security which impacts business function,” said Nagar.
KZN business owners highlighted decreased motivation of staff members as the second biggest impact that crime had on their businesses (19 percent). Decreased productivity (15 percent), a decline in creativity (12 percent), loss of customers (11 percent) and loss of staff (9 percent) were other concerns ranked by KZN business owners in the fourth quarter IBR survey.
When business owners were asked if they or any of their staff and immediate families had been directly affected by a threat to personal security (including road rage, hijackings, housebreakings and violent contact crime) in the past 12 months, over half of KZN businesses (51 percent) affirmed this concern.
Gauteng topped KZN business owners marginally, with 52 percent of Gauteng businesses impacted while only 39 percent of both Western and Eastern Cape business owners responded that crime had affected them over the past year.
Nagar said however that this crime statistic continues on a downward trend, with the national data for 2011 indicating that 46 percent of business owners have been negatively affected by crime in the past year. This figure was nearly 40 percent lower than what was recorded in 2007 (84 percent).
“The impact that crime has on SA business owners is still unacceptably high. While it is certainly pleasing to see this figure declining steadily over the past five years, we have a long way to go to see crime being properly eradicated from our daily lives,” he said.
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