ANDILE NTINGI: How to stop the exodus and tackle semigration

There is a five-minute TikTok video of premier Oscar Mabuyane scolding “self-hating” Eastern Cape migrants living in other provinces, who he accuses of having a penchant to badmouth their home province on social media.  

The video, posted a month or so ago by Daily Dispatch journalist Ziyanda Zweni, triggered a torrent of responses from angry TikTok users who rebuked Mabuyane for “defending” unsatisfactory service delivery and poor infrastructure in the Eastern Cape, where he has just begun a second five-year term as premier after the ANC won an outright majority in the recent provincial elections.  

At last count there were more than 2,200 comments on the video, most of them lambasting Mabuyane’s disparaging remarks about the migrants. He said some of them “think they are better because they live in Sandton”, but he knows they will come back to the Eastern Cape when they retire.  

But in the middle of the video Mabuyane admits that the province has been paralysed by neglect, leadership instability and lack of continuity in implementing policies. The “neglect” he is referring to is the inadequate investment in infrastructure in the rural eastern part of the province, where the former homeland of Transkei and the beautiful but tourism-stunted Wild Coast are located.

The western part of the province is more urbanised and is home to the cities of East London and Gqeberha, which host motor manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, VW, Ford and Isuzu.  

Since the video was posted the Eastern Cape economy has slid into recession, resulting in more than 77,000 workers losing their jobs in the first quarter of 2024 and extending the unemployment rate in the province to 42.4%.  

Shockingly high levels of unemployment have forced more than 2-million residents to migrate to other provinces in search of greener pastures. Though this huge outward migration has left the Eastern Cape scarred by a debilitating brain drain, remittances sent back home by the migrants help keep their families — and the provincial economy — afloat.  

Remittances are the second-biggest source of income for the province’s households behind salaried employment, at about 25% of household incomes.

Mabuyane would do well to understand that the so-called self-hating migrants sustain the Eastern Cape. Without their financial contribution many homes in the province would be condemned to a life of misery and starvation. 

Instead of being so thin-skinned over legitimate criticism he should be focusing on doing his job, which is to water the Eastern Cape’s grass to make it greener and more fertile, so that investors, entrepreneurs and skilled professionals will have reason not only to stay in the province but to migrate there in search of economic opportunities.  

As a leader Mabuyane could learn a thing or two from someone like Wayne Duvenage, CEO of corruption-fighting civil society group Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), who has called for a concerted effort to be made to reverse semigration out of Gauteng, his home province.

Instead of calling out semigrants for moving their businesses and headquarters to other parts of SA such as the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, Duvenage wants the problems that cause Gauteng residents to flee an economic and financial hub such as Johannesburg to be addressed. He understands that semigration could in the long run result in serious economic decline in Gauteng.    

Duvenage recently told the YouTube podcast State of the Nation: “We can’t allow semigration to happen. If we allow it, you are going to see head offices moving to other cities. You are going to see stranded assets. You are going to see warehouses, shopping malls and office blocks emptying out. We must fight this to make this place a pristine and vibrant economic hub.”   

This is the mindset Mabuyane should be adopting. He was re-elected to fix the problems that make Eastern Cape residents flee their home province, not to muzzle them from voicing the reasons that make them to flee in the first place. Gauteng is also experiencing decaying infrastructure, crime and grime, which are making its residents relocate, mostly to the Western Cape, where they believe they will enjoy good governance, better lifestyle and economic opportunities.   

When investors and residents are not happy with the manner in which their areas are governed they vote with their feet. Take the example of the US state of California, which has been experiencing an exodus of companies and people to states such as Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Tennessee, which are considered more welcoming and business friendly. 

California has lost its investor allure, which it held for more than a century. It is about to lose the headquarters of Space X and X (formerly Twitter), the companies owned by SA-born American billionaire Elon Musk, to Texas. Musk recently announced that he is moving the head offices of these companies after California passed a new bill that prohibits schools from notifying parents of changes to a child’s gender identity.

Musk, who disagrees with the proposed laws, described the bill as destroying parental rights and “attacking both families and companies”. According to the America First Policy Institute, California lost 352 headquarters in 2018 to 2021, including 11 Fortune 1,000 companies. 

Major corporations such as Tesla, Oracle, Charles Schwab, Chevron and many others have already left California. The state also lost more than 1.5-million people in 2012 to 2021 due to high taxes, expensive housing, high energy costs and excessive red tape.  

No matter where you are in the world, regions compete for investment and skills with other destinations. Mabuyane must learn to listen to criticism from Eastern Cape migrants who could work with him to reverse the brain drain the province is experiencing. 

• Ntingi is founder of eprocurement platform GetBiz.