South Africa

Where to Work South Africa

By ALEX DUVAL SMITH

Police Clearance Needed

As difficult as it can be to get a permit to live and work on South African soil, the experience can be rewarding. In a country where Apartheid left an impact, there’s somehow still a willingness to move on.

The Home Affairs officer comes back to the counter and withers you with a look. You just know. She is going to open her mouth and say “where is your police clearance?’’ or ‘’the letter from your employer is out of date.’’ You just know that three hours after handing over that numbered ticket that had shriveled in your hand, you are about to be sent away again. Applying for a work permit in South Africa would try the patience of a saint. In one of the world’s most unequal societies, battles with the Department of Home Affairs are the great leveler. South Africans, be they rich, poor, black or white get their identification cards through Home Affairs - eventually. Foreigners, be they European CEOs or low-skilled migrants from Zimbabwe, go there to apply for permission to remain in the country. Everyone has a Home Affairs story because the department is said to have a backlog of 750,000 applications. “I am married to a South African woman and we have two children so you would think I would be a straightforward case,’’ said 41-year-old Swedish chef Henrik Jonsson who runs the kitchens at a restaurant in Johannesburg’s School of Tourism and Hospitality. “I submitted my application for a work visa extension in June, in good time before my first fiveyear permit expired. In August, I was told there was no record of my paperwork. They now expect me to apply again with police clearance certificates from every country I have lived in since the age of 18. For me that means the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Dubai and Greece. It is crazy.’’ Mr. Jonsson believes the company he works for will allow him to continue being employed during his Home Affairs paper chase, even though he is now technically “illegal’’. However, he adds “not all the people in the human resources department are sympathetic to my difficulties, which is stressful.’’ Nevertheless, he and others have praise for the country’s working environment. “South Africa is one of the most tolerant countries in the world in terms of religion. Everyone just gets on with their thing. There is far more mutual respect than in the Middle East and Europe. “Racially, however, there are things you have to get used to. When I worked in California, there was diversity in the workforce but there were not expectations linked to race. Here you have to get used to the cultures of different black tribes – Xhosa, Venda, Zulu, they all have their differences – and it helps to study the cultures and traditions a little,’’ says Mr. Jonsson whose 33-year-old wife, Danielle, is a South African of Chinese origin. “Apartheid has also left its mark. I sense that with black people of my age there is

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something like a sense of entitlement: I suffered so I have a right to a Mercedes. But you do not feel that from younger black South Africans. They are more likely to take the view that they have been given an opportunity and want to make the most of it,’’ said Jonsson. Ayanda Bam, 24, is a mixed-race South African currently making the most of his life as an employee of a Johannesburg company, ECI Africa, that implements development projects for international donors. “I grew up in different countries and my first job was in Washington D.C. There is a big difference in the work culture here,’’ says the economic development consultant. Mr. Bam describes the United States work environment he has known as efficient, streamlined and driven but also “much less friendly and more concerned with professional than with human development than in South Africa’’. After 18 months back in his native country, he sometimes gets frustrated at the slow pace in his office but appreciates other features of the work environment. “People are more laid back so efficiency levels are lower. If you work more than 40 hours a week in South Africa, you’re in overtime. In the US, no one counts their hours,’’ says Mr. Bam whose colleagues are from all over the world – especially Africa – and who reports to South Africans. “In the States, everything is about time management and if you are working in a team, you will do your work on time, conscious that someone else is waiting for it before they can do theirs. In the US, if someone is 15 minutes late for an appointment you can probably assume they are not coming but that is not the case here.’’ Mr. Bam, who is the son of a diplomat

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Peter Mckenzie was born in Durban. He was a co-founder of the photo collective, Afrapix Agency. Mckenzie has published and exhibited both in South Africa and internationally, and is recognized as one of South Africa's greatest photographers. These photos are from his photo essay on migrant workers in South Africa. 01, 02, 03, 04 Photos by Peter McKenzie.

father and medical doctor mother, says he has not finished his traveling. “Being here has been like a homecoming to me but I do miss European culture and certain conveniences, like being able to walk to the supermarket, go to a bank at the weekend and other lifestyle details. Those are the things that are drawing me away again,’’ says Mr. Bam who plans to continue his education in Britain in 2012. German architect, Anja Green, 33, misses little from Berlin where she held her last job. A resident of Cape Town since February, she has traded a salary (that was a third higher) for a professional and personal adventure that is enriching in other ways. “You have all sorts of pre-conceived ideas about Africa and you quickly have to revise them when you come here,’’ she says. “The main points about working in South Africa are not what I had expected at all: Standards are high, the work is more creative and it is often carried out more quickly. In Germany you have to get a permit for everything before you start. It slows everything down. Here there are fewer permits to apply for. That speeds up projects and gives you creative breathing space.’’ Ms. Green, who moved to South Africa with her journalist boyfriend, says the key to being happy in the South African work environment is to communicate with people. “On site, people are shy. They may not have met a woman architect before. It is very important to strike up a conversation. At the beginning, being German, I did not understand everything that was being said. But people were very patient with me, and took the time to explain.’’ “In return I have tried to share my professional experience. I was an apprentice carpenter for a time in Germany. One day I showed a South African site worker a little trick. He was initially stunned to see it come from me, a woman. But now, whenever he sees me on site, he calls me over to show me he is still using it,’’ says Ms. Green whose small company, Thomas Leach Architects, has just completed work on a 200-seat restaurant in the upmarket V&A Waterfront shopping area of Cape Town’s harbor. Ms. Green and Mr. Jonsson both admit that they were reticent to move to South Africa because of its notorious crime rate. South Africa has one of the highest recorded murder and rape rates in the world – 50 murders a day. However, what is rarely explained is that the crime is concentrated in poor townships. South African society is extremely fragmented and middle class areas have much lower rates of crime. Ms. Green says nothing bad has happened to her or her boyfriend since they arrived in South Africa. Mr. Jonsson and his family, including two daughters aged 5 and 8, have had no crime experiences either. “We live in a walled, secure estate, with guards,’’ he says. “The children can run around and we can walk to the shops. Outside our area we are, of course, a bit careful. You have to be a little more conscious of potential dangers and observant of what is going on around you than elsewhere. Locking the car doors when you drive and not wearing jewelry are matters of common sense.’’ •