SA 'fright flights' rocketing

2008-07-22 20:23

Johannesburg - The number of South Africans who give emigration as the reason for selling their home has shot up in recent months as high crime levels and political and economic uncertainty spur the flight of whites.

A survey by First National Bank (FNB) showed the proportion of homeowners who said they were putting their homes on the market because they were emigrating had doubled between the last quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2008, from 9% to 18%.

Emigration was one of the most-frequent reasons given by homeowners for selling up, next only to downscaling because of financial pressures, according to the FNB residential property barometer.

Foreign embassies in South Africa have reported a jump in emigration applications from mainly white South Africans in recent months, amid growing disillusionment about high levels of violent crime and the populist slide in the ruling African National Congress.

Special flight out of SA

A power crisis that has made blackouts a feature of life in a country that prides itself on having first-world infrastructure, and a recent outbreak of xenophobic violence have also added to senses of doom and gloom fuelling emigration.

On Monday, a plane carrying 100 Jewish immigrants landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on the first specially-chartered aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel) flight from South Africa.

According to the Jewish Agency, the body that manages immigration to the Jewish state, the number of South African Jews interested in making Israel their home is set to double in 2008. From 178 last year, their number is set to reach more than 300 this year.

The agency said the political situation and crime and violence were behind the trend.

In South Africa, 50 people are murdered every day and more than 130 rape cases are reported.

800 000 quit in decade

While the past few years have seen a slight drop in contact-crime statistics, the level of violence used during robberies and other criminal acts has sown terror in the population.

Many white South Africans also take a dim view of the endorsement by the ruling African National Congress of party leader Jacob Zuma as its candidate for president in 2009 elections. Zuma faces trial in the coming year on charges of corruption and fraud.

South Africa's Institute for Race Relations estimates that about 800 000 whites emigrated in the decade from 1995 to 2005. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA