Zimbabwe Firms Attempting to Lure Skilled Workers From SAfrica

Text of report by Zimbabwean newspaper Financial Gazette website on 24 April

[Report by Shame Makoshori: "Zim Firms in Bid To Lure Back Professionals"]

Local companies are taking their hunt for skills into South Africa, the region’s economic powerhouse, which is wooing the country’s fleeing professional and skilled workers, The Financial Gazette can reveal.

The move follows permission granted to foreign currency-earning companies to pay salaries and allowances in foreign currency in a bid to retain critical skills, sources said this week.

The majority of the firms granted the permission to pay salaries in foreign currency are in the mining sector.

This week Anglo Platinum launched its offshore recruitment for technical staff for its platinum operation at Unki Mine.

It placed advertisements in mainstream South African newspapers, believed to have a wide readership among Zimbabweans.

“We are encouraging Zimbabwean citizens to join us,” Anglo Platinum said in a job advertisement in one of South Africa’s leading Sunday newspapers.

Anglo Platinum said it was looking for people to fill vacancies at its operation in Shurugwi, scheduled to start platinum mining this year.

Among the skills the mining giant was looking for were mine technical services professionals, managers for concentrators, mine overseers, engineering managers and other technical staff.

Air Zimbabwe also recently went to South Africa in search of pilots and captains. The airline has also been granted the authority to remunerate part of its workforce in foreign currency.

Investigations indicate that South Africa has experienced a flood of local companies trying to lure Zimbabwean engineers, electricians, civil engineers and other artisans back into the country, with United States dollar packages.

Zimbabwe has lost skills in the construction, mining and teaching professions, mainly to South Africa, currently enjoying a healthy economic growth rate that has even put pressure on demand for domestic power supplies.

Massive construction projects ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup have also lured Zimbabweans into South Africa, which won the bid to host the tournament.

Human resources experts this week told The Financial Gazette that the level of skilled manpower shortages in Zimbabwe has reached alarming levels and the low number of technical students in the country’s universities and colleges has compounded the situation.

A recent private study carried out by a local human resources consultancy firm revealed that the total number of technical students currently enrolled in tertiary institutions did not meet the manpower requirements of the country’s leading mining companies.

An estimated 3,1 million Zimbabweans are believed to be working in other countries with 37 per cent of them in the United Kingdom, 35 per cent in Botswana, five per cent in South Africa while 3,4 per cent are estimated to be residing in Canada.

A recent report by the Zimbabwe Council for Nurses said more than 3 500 nurses and 969 doctors had fled from government health institutions as at September 2007 after the health professionals intensified their hunt for better opportunities in the region and abroad.

Originally published by Financial Gazette website, Harare, in English 24 Apr 08.

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