Johannesburg — THE number of businesses affected by crime fell last year, but the high crime rate remained the main reason business people wanted to emigrate, according to a study released by accounting firm Grant Thornton yesterday.

More than half of the 300 businesses surveyed indicated they were affected directly by contact crimes in the past year. However, this was lower than the year before, when 64% were affected, indicating some improvement.

Leonard Brehm, national chairman of Grant Thornton, said that crime was "still unacceptably high. More than half of the survey population has been affected by crime in the past year. The sad conclusion is that crime is still a major problem," he said.

The study, which was carried out from October to November last year, found 55% of businesses reported that they, their staff or their families were affected by crimes such as housebreaking, hijacking, violent crime and road rage. This did not include white- and blue-collar crimes.

Brehm said that while the survey did not establish what led to the reduction, greater investment in security could have been a factor.

"Unfortunately, respondents were not asked this question in the study. However, businesses have laid out exorbitant costs on security. It must be paying dividends, although I say this with some caution," he said.

Brehm said that violent crime had also contributed to the skills shortage.

The high crime rate was still the main reason business owners considered emigration, although it was down to 69% in the latest study compared with 93% in the previous one.

Political uncertainty has also become less of a factor prompting emigration. Only 42% of respondents compared with 72% previously gave this as a reason.

Businesses also suffered financial hardship as a result of crime. At least half the business owners surveyed incurred increased costs for security. Decreased motivation, productivity and creativity and loss of customers were also blamed on crime.

Businesses in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were still hit the hardest. Both provinces recorded that employees and their families at 62% of businesses were victims of crime last year, but that was down from 71% and 77% respectively the year before.

Recent crime statistics showed that SA recorded 2,1-million cases of "serious" crime with increases of 41% in business robberies, 27% in home robberies, 5% in car hijackings and 15,4% in truck hijackings.