Today in Harare, the state-run Herald quoted a Scientific and Industrial Research Centers study as saying that 500,000 professionals have fled Zimbabwe. The estimated 20,000 scientists and engineers still in the country are outnumbered by those who have left. "One reason for there being fewer scientists left in Zimbabwe is that government and private sector spending on research and development is only 0.2 percent of the gross national product," according to the report. "The health and teaching professions, already being decimated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic at home, were the most affected by emigration," it said. Triple-digit inflation, chronic shortages and joblessness have led more than 1 million Zimbabweans to leave the nation, chiefly for South Africa, Britain, and the United States, according to private economists.

Back to other news for September 27, 2005

Search the Newsroom archive