There has been a notable increase in the number of people looking to emigrate from South Africa following the economic and political events of this past week.

This is according to immigration consultant, Chris Watters, who spoke to 702’s Abongile Nzelenzele.

“On average we may receive a couple of inquiries a week whereas this week and in the past when something bad happens in the economy or in politics it has climbed to 9-10 inquiries a day,” said Watters.

Interviewer Abongile Nzelenzele also inquired as to which people and demographics were looking to emigrate, noting that he like so many people assumed that it was predominantly white South African looking to leave the country.

Watters confirmed that this was no longer the case and that the people looking to emigrate were “across the board”, with people from varying backgrounds wanting to leave.

He did note that it was predominantly younger and middle-age groups looking to leave, but added that there was no standout race or group of people looking to leave more than any other.

The biggest inhibitor was money as it was firstly a big cost to pack up and move overseas.

Read: The cheapest countries for South Africans to buy citizenship and emigrate to in 2017

Watters noted that the reason given for emigrating was primarily out of fear for South Africa’s future including the standard of education, while additional concerns related to job prospects and the future well being of children.

Read: This one graph shows that more South Africans are leaving the country

The immigration expert stressed that while there may be an uptick in the number of emigration enquiries, it does not necessarily translate into people actually leaving the country.

“South Africans are very very close to their country so when there is a collapse to business confidence they say ‘right I’m going’.

“Then once they start getting a sense of how difficult it and how expensive it is they start kind of losing interest and have a nice weekend with the braais and going fishing and then say thanks very much I will stick it out,” Watters said.

Research conducted by FNB showed an uptick in emigration-related home selling in South Africa.

Read: The cheapest countries for South Africans to buy citizenship and emigrate to in 2017