Suppesedly laid-back Port Elizabeth and East London are SA's most stressful business centres, beating frantic Gauteng, which is the most relaxed, says a new survey by business consultancy Grant Thornton.

Fully 71% of business owners in Port Elizabeth and East London reported themselves "stressed out", compared with 67% in Durban and 61% in Cape Town. In Gauteng, only 59% felt themselves to be stressed.

On the whole, South African businessmen are the third-most stressed in the world, says the survey.

It found that 61% of business owners in SA claimed to be highly stressed, citing business turnover, customers' high expectations, red tape, high volumes of e-mail and not spending enough time with family.

The survey, conducted between September and October last year, and released yesterday, covered 6300 businessmen in 24 countries. Turkey and Poland held the top two positions, with 81% and 64% respectively.

Although the economy is doing relatively well, many sectors have been complaining about the strong rand and the high costs of doing business.

The survey found 82% of local business owners said profitability, turnover and prices contributed to high stress.

Other factors contributing to an increase in stress levels were customer expectations (75%), red tape and regulation (71%), complaints from owners about not being able to spend enough time with their families (63%), high volumes of e-mail (34%) and fear of terrorism or lack of security (32%). Future ownership of companies (28%) and changes in audit requirements (25%) were cited as some of the factors contributing least to stress.

Leonard Brehm, national chairman for Grant Thornton, said that although South African business owners had very high stress levels, both "businesses and the economy were booming".

Businessmen's stress levels were caused by positive trends and their ability to keep up.

Brehm said "business was a big factor in how stressed people felt. But if we scratch beneath the surface, business owners feel stressed by success as much as by failure."

At least 75% of local businesses expected an increase in turnover for 2004, compared with 58% in other countries last year.

Sixty-five percent expected profits had grown, compared with the global average of 42%.

Brehm said the strength of the rand had increased selling prices.

SA had shown a 50% increase in selling prices last year, compared with 58% in other countries.

However, he said 84% of owners had shown increased optimism about the future of business, against the global average of 41%.

Only 17% of local owners said they had sought medical advice for stress-related illness in the past year.

Business owners in every country reported that their stress levels were up on the previous year.

The survey also found that 49% of South African business owners were significantly more stressed last year than the year before.

Those least affected were in Sweden (23%), the Netherlands (25%) and Canada (26%).

Business Day