Businessmen ready to flee 'crime-ridden' SA

At least 20% of South African business owners seriously considered leaving the country last year, with 62% of them stating that their core reasons for emigration were the high crime rate and the political climate.

About 27% of the business owners were from KwaZulu-Natal while 23% came from Gauteng and 19% from the Eastern Cape. Nearly 11% of them were based in Western Cape.

This is according to the fourth-quarter data for the 2011 Grant Thornton International Business Report, released in Durban yesterday.

The report provides quarterly insight into the views and expectations of more than 11000 businesses surveyed each year across 39 economies.

"The impact that crime has on South African business owners is still unacceptably high," managing partner at Grant Thornton Durban, Deepak Nagar, said.

But Nagar, who is also the new national chairman of Grant Thornton SA, expressed optimism at the decreasing number of business owners who had been directly affected by a threat of crime.

"The national data stand at 40% lower than the 2007 statistic of 84%. While it is certainly pleasing to see this figure declining steadily over the past five years, we still have a long way to go to see crime being properly eradicated from our daily lives," he said.

Gauteng topped KwaZulu-Natal marginally with 52% of Gauteng businesses directly affected by crime in 2011, while 51% of KwaZulu-Natal businesses shared this concern.

Only 39% in Western Cape and Eastern Cape responded that crime had affected them in the past 12 months.

The report also highlighted that 37% of South African executives rated over-regulation and red tape as the biggest constraints to business expansion.

"For the first time in five years, over-regulation as a business constraint now surpasses South African business-owner frustrations relating to the lack of availability of a skilled work force, with 36% of business owners noting this as a challenge. But both concerns are ranked high by South African business owners in terms of constraints to expanding business operations," Nagar said.

The report found that poor government service delivery affected business owners, with Eastern Cape highest with 60%, followed by Gauteng with 50%.

Business Unity SA spokesman Masego Lehihi said the body would comment on the report today.