AFFIRMATIVE ACTION LEADS TO BRAIN DRAIN

Whilst I absolutely agree with everything that Buthelezi says in this article, I also know that in many instances the 'spirit' of affirmative action has not been upheld by both black and white business. Furthermore it is here to stay and instead of seeing it as a problem, rather look at the opportunities it opens up for all of us.

I understand that it is great opportunity for all the 'doomsday' people to climb onto their respective soap boxes, and weep and wail and knash their teeth in deep sorrow, but the truth of the matter is that the whole concept opens up huge opportunities both in the black and white market and both with big corporates and the SMME market.

So don't delay, don't tarry awhile with the 'doomsdayers', get on the train right now, it can and will take to places of great interest and huge wealth!

'Affirmative action leads to brain drain'

February 01 2007 at 01:28PM

The government's reckless implementation of the affirmative action policy was forcing many whites to leave the country, creating a skills shortage crisis, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Thursday. Writing in his weekly letter, Buthelezi said white people need to be offered incentives in order for them to stay in the country. "We need to grant white South Africans a meaningful stake in the existing order... not only does this make economic sense, it is also in line with our vision of a non-racial South Africa of the struggle days," he said. The reason a majority of white people supported the then National Party's referendum calling for an end to apartheid rule was because they believed they would have a place in the new South Africa, said Buthelezi.

"If the majority of white South Africans had envisaged in the early 1990s the way affirmative action and racial classification would come to dominate the post-apartheid labour market, few would have voted yes in Mr de Klerk's watershed referendum on constitutional reform," he said. The IFP, Buthelezi said, would be proposing a forum to explore ways of keeping whites in the country. "My party proposes to hold a widely representative forum to look at why so many whites have left with their skills and what can be done to keep them and encourage those who have left to come back," he said. Buthelezi also criticised government's Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), saying it has failed to create jobs. "The IFP has consistently pointed out the EPWP can never be an unemployment panacea (for the simple reason that) it is not part of an open labour market and most of the working jobs created last only as long as the infrastructural programme that has prompted them."What South Africa needs to create jobs is an open labour market," he said. - Sapa