South Africas economically active population is growing, an indication that more people are coming into the labour force. Unfortunately, the growth in the number of economically active population does not correlate with the growth in the number of jobs created year-on-year, South Africa has 20.1 million economically active people but the countrys labour absorption rate has remained stagnant at around 42.8%, according to the Annual Labour Market Bulletin. This lagged well behind the international average of about 60%. The departments Employment Services for South Africa recorded 607,229 new job seekers in the past financial year, of which only 2.5% were placed in positions in the same period. It recorded a sharp increase in trade union membership, which grew by 22.6% in the last financial year, compared to a 10% dip the year before that. Sustainable economic growth, restoring the countrys competitiveness in the global economy and better matching of the work-seekers with the jobs are required for government to be able to find employment for more than five million unemployed people, the report stated. With half of South Africans without formal employment, the issue of illegal immigrants from neighboring states had become one of the most sensitive political issues. Illegal Mozambicans alone are said to number between 500,000 and 1 million. The shocking part about these figures is that it comes from an article published in 1994. Last year [1993] 96,000 illegal immigrants - 81,000 from Mozambique - were expelled from South Africa compared with 44,225 in 1988. Ten years later, during the first 10 months of 2004, the South African government had deported 41,069 Zimbabwean citizens from Limpopo province alone, a nine percent increase from the total of 37,796 deportations in 2003. In 2009, the Chinese population in Africa was estimated at between 580,000 to 820,000. Today, that number is likely closer to (or even over) 1 million, although exact counts are virtually impossible to ascertain due to the mobility of Chinese migrants as well as highly porous borders within Africa, high levels of corruption within some African government agencies, and inefficiencies within agencies tasked with immigration and border control. South Africa, as one of the most developed countries in Africa, is a popular destination for Chinese moving to the continent. According to some reports, well over half of all Chinese migrants heading to Africa end up at the southern tip of the continent. After the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994, this country experienced a huge influx of immigrants and refugees. The increased flight of immigrants and refugees from some African as well as the SADC countries into South Africa has resulted in rapidly growing problems for the latter as the host country. In 1989 the South African Institute of International Affairs estimated that there were 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the country. By 1994 they estimated the number at approximately 5 million (Minaar et al. 1995: 33). It is interesting to note that over the same period, however, the South African Police Services (SAPS) estimated the number of illegal immigrants at between 2 and 3.5 million or between 5 and 8 percent of the total population. Senator Carl Werth of the Freedom Front (FF), during a Home Affairs debate in the Senate in August 1994, announced that the number of illegal immigrants in the country was 8 million. A month later, Dr Frederick van Zyl Slabbert announced at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) symposium that the number of illegal aliens in the country might be as high as 12 million (Minaar and Hough 1996: 127). In 2010, more asylum applications were lodged in South Africa than in any other country in the world. The trend continued in 2011, and the heavy demands on the asylum system resulted in a backlog of more than 300 000 applications awaiting a decision. Most asylum applications and refugees in South Africa are from nationals of Burundi, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Somalia and Zimbabwe. As of December 2010 some 58 000 people, mainly from Angola, the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia had been recognised as refugees in South Africa. They were allowed to work and to avail themselves of basic social services. By June 2011, the Department of Home Affairs had received approximately 181 000 asylum applications for the year 2010. Ironically, this was a fifth of the total number received globally during the same period, making South Africa the world’s largest recipient of individual applications for asylum. In 2012, the ANC government tried to ease the pressure on the asylum system and made it more efficient. This saw some 275 000 Zimbabweans apply for work, study or business permits. Despite the above statistical data, there is general consensus among researchers in the migration field that migration into and within South Africa is poorly collected and coordinated (Wa Kabwe-Segatti and Landau 2006: 5; Forced Migration Studies Programme Report 2010: 1). The Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) Report of 2010, based on its extrapolation from census data, estimated the total foreign population to be between 1.5 and 2 million or 3-4 percent of the South African population (FMSP Report 2010: 3). In agreement with the above sentiments, Solomon (2003: 90) argues that the researchers were confronted by the central problem of the illegal and clandestine nature of this form of population movement because it provides an inadequate basis for its quantification. It should be quite obvious that the above estimate of the total foreign population being between 1.5 and 2 million is absurd to say the least. It suggests that the total number of illegal foreigners increased from 1.2 million in 1989 to only some 2 million by 2013. South Africa welcomed a total of 9,616,964 tourists in 2013. Africa, remains the largest source of foreign tourism arrivals to South Africa with 6,889,389 in 2013. This means that of the 9.6 million, 6.6 million were from Africa, as every other year, and no one can tell us how many of those ever leave the country again. Statistics South Africa reported that the annual number of deaths in South Africa increased by 57%, from 318,287 in 1997 to 499,268 in 2003. Calculated South African population growth could only account for approximately 10% of this increase. This means that 57% more people are dying, while South Africas population is growing at a rate of only 1.3% per year (2013). By 2008 the total death figure had increased even more to 592,073 from 499,268 in 2003 and 318,287 in 1997. South Africas latest population growth rate: -0.48% (August 2014 estimate) According to Census 2011, we are, remarkably, five times less certain about the population than we were in 2001, which, says Mr Moultrie, simply does not make sense. - Jury out on statisticians counting Conclusion It should be obvious that the future of South Africans looks very bleak. South Africas infrastructure cannot cope with the demands posed by the population explosion caused by the influx of illegal foreigners and refugees. South Africa is running out of water, electricity and jobs. South Africas health services cannot cope with the demand, while more and more hospitals are closing down. More and more health professionals are fleeing the country. It is impossible to train health professionals fast enough to cope with the growing shortage. Hundreds of schools have been closed down by the ANC regime and the country is suffering a serious shortage of teaching staff. South Africa already has the lowest standards of education in the world. The tax burden on the 3.3 million tax payers, which is also shrinking, is fast reaching breaking point. The ANC regime is stealing money faster than South Africas Industry and Commerce can generate. One can expand and continue listing more examples, but it should be quite obvious that the artificially created South African bubble is about to burst.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 17:30:35 +0000
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