PERTH, AUSTRALIA // The steady stream of educated, mostly white South Africans to Western Australia is continuing apace as migrants seek to escape from rising crime and regional volatility.
The phrase "Packing for Perth" has come to symbolise the flight of Southern Africans looking to make a fresh start thousands of miles away across the Indian Ocean.
Paul Llewellyn, a Johannesburg-born Greens MP in the Western Australian parliament, said the coastal state capital with its golden beaches and a population of 1.5m has been a natural choice for a host of émigrés.
"Historically, people from South Africa have found it very easy to migrate over to Perth," he said. "It's a very similar climate and it's very affluent and very appealing to South Africans to land here."
According to official statistics, 5,200 South Africans migrated to Australia in 2007-08, making them the sixth-largest group of new settlers behind those from New Zealand, Britain, India, China and the Philippines.
"The problem is clearly there's a brain drain," Mr Llewellyn said.
"Many of those professional people from South Africa who can't really see a future for themselves are exiting the place and are taking their wealth and their intellectual property and that is stripping South Africa of a really important resource. It is primarily white Africans.
"They are to some extent economic and social refugees."
Doug Horak left Johannesburg 18 months ago to join his brother in Western Australia, with escalating crime the main catalyst for his move from South Africa.
A violent confrontation with intruders at his parents' farm convinced the 40-year-old recruitment manager to consider leaving his homeland.
"At about 1.30am I awoke with the dogs barking and I could hear one of the patio doors being banged," he said.
"I always carried a firearm and walked up the passage and two of the dogs came rushing past me going absolutely ballistic. I got three or four feet from the door and realised there was a guy trying to come through this door, which had glass panes. The fact that there were two huge dogs on the inside and him still trying to come through led me to believe there was either one or two more outside," Mr Horak said.
"I fired a few shots through the glass over his head and then ran outside and fired a few more shots into the trees. It certainly wasn't as bad as other people have had to deal with but it was terrifying enough."
Settling into a safer life in Perth has taken time and for Mr Horak the dark memories have been hard to erase.
"The first time a car backfired, you dive for cover and you look for who has been shot. It's a bit ridiculous at first. You are very wary when you approach traffic lights because those are the traditional spots the hijackers would be."
Crime also forced Heidi Cornelissen, 38, and her husband to seek new pastures in Perth, a clean and spacious city that was recently voted one of the world's best places to live.
"One of my biggest fears about leaving South Africa was leaving the friends but I felt I was ready to go," said Mrs Cornelissen, a former accountant who now runs a business as a life coach and was the victim of both a hijacking and a burglary.
"The interesting thing about me is my life is completely new, from my work as well as my personal life. I phoned my husband today and said 'do you know how happy I am?' This is where my soul wants to be."
Links between the two former British colonies run deep and the gold rushes of the 1850s attracted South African prospectors to south-eastern Australia, and in modern times, Mr Llewellyn believes that as well as bringing valuable skills to such cities as Perth, some South African expatriates carry with them more unsavoury baggage.
"As a coloured South African, I think sometimes they bring some of the bad values with them, the racist attitudes and a little bit of the same kind of greediness that comes with being able to have free access to cheap labour."
In response, Mr Horak said while he had noticed bigotry in Perth, it had nothing to do with Southern African migrants.
"What has been quite interesting is the underlying racism I found here toward the local Aboriginal populace from the general public. It is not as in-your-face as the very strong, conservative attitude back in South Africa but it's certainly here."
Despite effectively being forced out of Johannesburg by criminals, Mr Horak insists that while Australia is a prosperous sanctuary, his heart will always belong to the old country.
"Perth is never going to be the same. It is never going to be South Africa. If I'm fortunate to have children in Australia, home will be Australia for them but I think South Africa will always be home for me. I don't think you can ever give that up."
pmercer@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Bangla Tigers 108-5 (10 ovs)
Ingram 37, Rossouw 26, Pretorius 2-10
Deccan Gladiators 109-4 (9.5 ovs)
Watson 41, Devcich 27, Wiese 2-15
Gladiators win by six wickets
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
((Disclaimer))
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The design
The protective shell is covered in solar panels to make use of light and produce energy. This will drastically reduce energy loss.
More than 80 per cent of the energy consumed by the French pavilion will be produced by the sun.
The architecture will control light sources to provide a highly insulated and airtight building.
The forecourt is protected from the sun and the plants will refresh the inner spaces.
A micro water treatment plant will recycle used water to supply the irrigation for the plants and to flush the toilets. This will reduce the pavilion’s need for fresh water by 30 per cent.
Energy-saving equipment will be used for all lighting and projections.
Beyond its use for the expo, the pavilion will be easy to dismantle and reuse the material.
Some elements of the metal frame can be prefabricated in a factory.
From architects to sound technicians and construction companies, a group of experts from 10 companies have created the pavilion.
Work will begin in May; the first stone will be laid in Dubai in the second quarter of 2019.
Construction of the pavilion will take 17 months from May 2019 to September 2020.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
Fixtures
Tuesday - 5.15pm: Team Lebanon v Alger Corsaires; 8.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Pharaohs
Wednesday - 5.15pm: Pharaohs v Carthage Eagles; 8.30pm: Alger Corsaires v Abu Dhabi Storms
Thursday - 4.30pm: Team Lebanon v Pharaohs; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Carthage Eagles
Friday - 4.30pm: Pharaohs v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Team Lebanon
Saturday - 4.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Team Lebanon
How it works
Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.
Round by round, the player expands their empire. The more land they have, the more money they can take from their coffers for each go.
As unruled land and soldiers are acquired, players must feed them. When a player comes up against land held by another army, they can choose to battle for supremacy.
A dice-based battle system is used and players can get the edge on their enemy with by deploying a renowned hero on the battlefield.
Players that lose battles and land will find their coffers dwindle and troops go hungry. The end goal? Global domination of course.
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Croatia v Hungary, Thursday, 10.45pm, UAE
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
DUNGEONS%20%26%20DRAGONS%3A%20HONOR%20AMONG%20THIEVES
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Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
