Note to Editors: You can download a sound clip in English from Andrew Whitfield MPL.
- 981,943 people are estimated to have moved from the Eastern Cape to other provinces between 2016 and 2026.
- Economic decline drives skilled residents away, and the resulting loss of skills further weakens the economy.
- The DA will table a matter of public importance debate to develop a provincial strategy that positions the Eastern Cape as a destination for talent, skills, entrepreneurship, and investment.
The Eastern Cape is exporting the very people it needs to build its future.
Between 2016 and 2026, Stats SA estimates that 981,943 people moved from the Eastern Cape to another province. Inflows from other provinces and abroad partially offset those departures, leaving the province with a net migration loss of 587,658 people.
The DA will request that the Eastern Cape Legislature hold a debate on a matter of public importance to confront this crisis and begin developing a credible provincial strategy to attract, retain, and grow skills and talent.
The scale of this outward migration reflects the depth of the Eastern Cape’s economic decline. People are leaving because the province is failing to provide the jobs, opportunities, and to get towns and cities working for all.
The Democratic Alliance believes that the pattern can be reversed, but only if the right policies are put in place that will stabilise local government to ensure economic growth, focus on talent attraction and retention so that we can build a province in which people want to live and invest.
People leave their homes, families, and communities because they believe their prospects will be better elsewhere. They move to find work, build careers, start businesses, study, and secure a better future for their children.
The Eastern Cape’s official unemployment rate reached 44.6% in the first quarter of 2026, while the broader measure that includes the potential labour force stood at 54.4%. In the Western Cape, the corresponding rates were 19.6% and 24.8%.
The result is a self-perpetuating cycle. Weak economic growth and unemployment push skilled and ambitious residents out of the province. Their departure reduces the pool of professionals, artisans, entrepreneurs, graduates, and experienced workers available to grow the economy.
That loss of capacity contributes to further economic stagnation, which drives even more people to leave.
The Eastern Cape has become a net exporter of talent, skills and know-how to the rest of South Africa.
Stats SA’s demographic profile shows that the Eastern Cape has the lowest proportion of people aged between 25 and 34 of any province, at just 14.5%. This should set alarm bells ringing throughout the provincial government.
The answer cannot be to accept the decline as inevitable. The Eastern Cape must deliberately reposition itself as a province to which skilled people, entrepreneurs, investors, and families choose to move.
The Western Cape’s economic success presents an opportunity. As its cities experience higher property prices, congestion, and rising operating costs, the Eastern Cape should position itself as a competitive alternative and a beneficiary of economic expansion moving eastwards.
The Eastern Cape offers a lower cost of living, established universities, ports, airports, industrial capacity, agricultural potential, extraordinary natural assets, and coastal cities with the potential to offer an excellent quality of life. However, potential alone will not attract investment or retain skilled people.
Municipalities must provide the stable foundation on which economic growth depends. Fixing local government is therefore central to reversing the migration crisis.
The Eastern Cape needs a focused strategy to retain graduates and scarce skills, attract former residents back, and position the province as a lower-cost destination for businesses, professionals, entrepreneurs, and remote workers. This must be backed by stronger municipalities, closer alignment between skills development and investment, and a credible pipeline of opportunities in sectors such as agriculture, tourism, energy, industry, and the ocean economy.
Net outward migration is also eroding the Eastern Cape’s equitable share. The province’s share of South Africa’s population fell from 12.4% in 2016 to 11.1% in 2026, placing growing pressure on its share of nationally raised revenue and reinforcing the cycle of economic decline, skills loss, and reduced capacity to respond.
The Eastern Cape must stop managing its decline and start competing for its future by building pathways to prosperity for all.