Expert: Stuart James - 10/22/2009

Question
Dear Sir,

Myself and my wife are planning to move to South Africa. I have 2 questions:
1) What can be a reasonably good salary for survival of 2 person with only one working?
2)what is the general monthly remuneration for a Marketing Manager with Graduation in Electrical Engineering and with 8 years of experience.
3) what is general inflation level?
4) How expensive is medication - do we need to have insurance and in case it is so - how costly they are?
5) How difficult it is to obtain an work permit in SA with a qualification of MBA in HR and 1 year of experience.

I will be grateful, if you can provide me with the response at the earliest.

Regards
Abhishek

Answer
Hi Abhishek

Thanks for the question and i will do my best to give you some guidance:

What can be a reasonably good salary for survival of 2 person with only one working?

Thats always a difficult one to answer as it really does depend upon your own lifestyle and it also depends upon where you are going to work and live. If you can let me know this i maybe able to give you a better idea but very approx a good salary would be R25,000 plus per month.

What is the general monthly remuneration for a Marketing Manager with Graduation in Electrical Engineering and with 8 years of experience.

Check out this site and see if it helps you out - http://www.payscale.com/research/ZA/Country=South_Africa/Salary

W#hat is general inflation level?

Between 6% and 7% (published) in reality some things much more - electricity and others, less for example food has come down in price in the least month or two.

How expensive is medication - do we need to have insurance and in case it is so - how costly they are?
Definitely recommended - depending upon the type of cover you could spend anything form R1500 per month to R4000 per month. The cheaper end covers hospital cover only and the more expensive medication etc.

You can contact jan@incompass.co.za for exact quotes.

How difficult it is to obtain an work permit in SA with a qualification of MBA in HR and 1 year of experience.

This does depend upon primarily whether you are moving with your employer or not. If not then it is reasonably difficult as your lack of experience would not allow for you to apply for quota or exceptional skills permits.

In short you would need a job offer in this case.

Hope this helps but ask away if you need more information.

Regards