South Africans excelling in Dubai

Not long ago Eugene de Villiers' sister was held up at gunpoint and robbed in Pretoria and a friend had his car stolen no fewer than five times.

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This and a curiosity about the wider world, drove the recently-graduated architect first to Britain when he was 25 and then to Dubai.

Now 32, he is pondering his next five-year plan here.

His experience is fairly typical for South Africans, pulled temporarily to this rather fantastic oasis boom town by its attractions or pushed by crime and affirmative action at home, but now contemplating staying on.

Although the global economic downturn is sending swarms of South Africans home from Britain especially, it has not yet really hit Dubai.

Shehnaz Cassim Moosa from Durban lives along Dubai's beachfront strip, on the trunk of a giant palm-tree shaped island where her compatriot, Sol Kerzner, has just completed construction of his newest mega-resort.

Moosa, 26, works for an international property developer and has even learnt to ski on an artificial snow slope built inside a shopping mall.

Moosa, who read for her MA degree in London, and her husband, Junaid, were attracted by Dubai's handy location for future onward travel to Asia and the Middle East.

And the fact that the city replicates a middle-class life back home, but with noticeably more razzle-dazzle. She found it very bling-bling - especially at first.

"People put a lot more effort into looking good," she says.

Professor Anthony Black, professor of economics at Cape Town University, stresses economic factors, especially higher salaries, as the main pull factors for South Africans here while crime, affirmative action and concerns about SA's political future are the main push factors in that order.

There are now believed to be 50 000 to 100 000 South Africans in Dubai, though no one seems sure.

"South African names pop up all over the place," says Nigel Harvey, chief executive of Murray and Roberts for the Middle East and president of the SA-United Arab Emirates (UAE) Business Council.

"The UAE is fast becoming one of the top destinations for South Africans wanting to live and work overseas," Anco Fourie wrote in a MA thesis on the "brain drain" to Dubai. "They are much sought after."

South Africans like the low crime, high salaries, zero income tax, fantastic work experience, the respect for a South African education, and the exciting, melting-pot cosmopolitanism of a city which has gathered its population from more than 200 countries.

A small fishing and pearling village before oil was discovered in 1966, Dubai has grown and diversified to the point where oil now only contributes 6 percent to the state's GDP and 80 percent of the population are expatriates.

It is an international capital that is celebrated as a foreigner-friendly base for many multinationals and as a glossy shopping and tourist mecca.

Asia's biggest shopping mall, the Dubai Mall, opened here in November, boasting an aquarium and an ice-rink, among other facilities.

Across the road is one of the world's tallest buildings, the Burj Dubai, to which even more floors are being added.

Construction is constant; a quarter of the world's cranes are here and so are tens of thousands of developing-world workers.

The South Africans here are mostly highly skilled, educated, professional, cosmopolitan and mobile. They favour jobs in construction, medicine, hospitality, management and education.

Most are white or Indian and appreciate that colour-blind, progressive Dubai accepts them on merit and gives them something they perhaps don't feel at home - a strong sense of being part of doing something special, of helping to build this vibrant, unique young global oasis.

Architects and others in the construction business especially feel they are shaping something new. Creativity is encouraged and Dubai has a collaborative "can-do" attitude.

"You're straight away giving your family an opportunity to really appreciate different parts of the world that are relatively close by," said Harvey, who has been in Dubai with his family since 2004.

"Classes (at schools) are hugely multicultural. You look through their yearbooks and it's often that you don't get four kids from the same nationality in one class."

Conversely, Dubai appreciates the South Africans because they work hard - and perhaps especially because they can be hired for 30 percent less than Britons and most other westerners, according to Dr Muhammad Iqbal, a Dubai businessman, who was the South African Consulate-General's trade and marketing manager from 2000 to 2006.

South Africans have already added much value to Dubai, not least to its skyline, helping to construct several landmark buildings such as the so-called "seven star" Burj Al Arab hotel that features 18 carat gold finishes, a pillow menu with 13 different choices, personal butlers and transport for guests in chauffeur-driven Rolls Royces.

South Africans are also working on the new airport that has a target capacity of 60-million arrivals by 2010.

"The bottom line is that South Africans have excelled here. They're coming in all the time", says Harvey.

That's true for the highly-skilled South Africans here, who seem to be in the majority.

But for the roughly-estimated 15 percent who have come into entry-level or non-management positions, Dubai is a less hospitable place.

A former blue collar construction worker who would soon be going back home and who did not want to be named, said: "You can have a good life in Dubai as long as you've got the right position and have enough money.

"But if you're not white and live in a predominantly working class area, you see the tensions that exist, you hear about more petty crime taking place here. Perception is what it's about."

Mpho Tabane, 29, born in Kimberley, is also going home after just a year in Dubai.

"I've resigned, I'm going home. I am receiving urgent emails every few days saying: 'Come back, we need you'.

I want to go home to help. South Africa needs entrepreneurs and they need them now. I'm going home to make a difference.

"In South Africa we have an opportunity to speak out on touchy subjects. In South Africa we are in a much better position."

Tabane's other concern is that he plans to marry soon.

"I don't know about bringing up kids in this environment. Finding a school here is the question mark.

"What I like most about Dubai is the safety. I must give one plus to Dubai for safety. What I dislike about Dubai are the poor business ethics and pathetic customer services. It's really bad. I fail to see how they keep businesses floating here," he said.

"Certain population groups are racist. I told them this is not a colour issue, this is a performance issue. And then they started gaining respect."

Dubai is certainly not for the poor. It's an expensive city, except for petrol which is cheaper than water. It costs just R25 to fully tank a Toyota Yaris.

A four-bedroom villa will set you back about R1,3-million a year and even a two-bedroomed flat about half a million rands a year - and almost all landlords demand that you sign the lease for at least a year.

Foreigners may not become citizens and non-nationals have only recently been able to buy freehold property.

Education costs are also high, if not subsidised by employers, as expats have to opt for private schools because foreign children are not eligible for the local government schools.

Dubai's discrimination in favour of the highest skills is greatly aggravating SA's brain drain, especially attracting world-class graduates in the construction industry, just when SA needs them most.

Black notes though that the global economic downturn has staunched the brain drain as job opportunities start to dry up elsewhere - though much more in Britain than Dubai - and now more top economics and finance graduates are opting to study further at SA universities.

He adds that there is also encouraging movement in the opposite direction - not only of returning South Africans but also foreigners looking for work in SA and it would help if SA were more open to skilled immigration.

"There are many people from Europe and other parts of Africa who can bring a range of skills."

Ms NA Nyamande-Pitso, SA's consul-general in Dubai, scorns the contention that affirmative action is (after crime) the second biggest reason for South Africans leaving for Dubai or other countries.

"If any country has an unapologetic affirmative action plan it is Dubai itself," she says.

"Here it's about Emiratisation," she adds. "South Africa is not the only country with such a plan. Affirmative action in South Africa is all about the majority entering the mainstream and benefiting.

"Otherwise the new democracy would be a farce. Affirmative action will remain in place until it has served its purpose.

"Anyway some South Africans are going back home. Some don't make it here. Other countries are facing the same challenges as we are.

Some even get here and have to send their families home because they can't afford to keep them here."