Million whites leave SA – study

Johannesburg - One million white South Africans - almost a fifth - have left the country in the past ten years.

This figure was released last week in a report from the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR).

Frans Cronjé, who compiled the report, said it was especially crime and affirmative action which had driven a fifth of South Africa's white population out of the country.

He did an analysis of Statistics South Africa's Household Surveys between 1995 and 2005, emigration figures and other reliable estimates on population numbers.

"When we drew the graphs we saw that almost a whole generation of white South Africans are not here anymore."

The figures for 2005 put the number of white South Africans in the country at 4.3 million, 841 000 fewer than the 5.2 million of 1995.

Economically productive

Most of the white emigrants are economically productive people, said Marco Macfarlane, co-author of the report.

"Black people are entering the economy at a stiff pace, but of the economically active middle class (the country's biggest tax contributors), blacks only account for 1%."

More whites going to leave

"And because the crime figures are not going to decline rapidly and affirmative action is to continue, more whites are going to leave.

"The young people reckon they are being punished for what happened in the previous dispensation. They are furious, because they feel they had no part in it," said Macfarlane.

According to the report the emigrants are between 20 and 40 years old.

"This is the group that have children and help grow the population, but now they're getting their children overseas. And they don't come back. That means the white population is going to continue to shrink."

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