Barclays Africa headquarters in Dubai is disbanding and staff are being given an ultimatum: redundancy or relocate within Barclays, ideally to the new HQ in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s a choice few would envy at this precise moment.

The Johannesburg HQ will open on 1 July, 2011, but Barclays said all the 123 back office staff – HR, finance and head office-related – in Dubai have until the end of the year to make up their minds. “No Barclays Africa employees will remain in Dubai after that,” a spokesperson confirmed.

The Gulf job market is in turmoil currently, so the move could of course prove to be a ticket out of the region for those unnerved by recent political violence.

Barclays Africa and Absa Africa announced earlier this week that they are combining their operations and setting up the regional headquarters in Johannesburg. Barclays Africa, which operates in ten African countries, offers retail, corporate and credit card services in Africa and the Indian Ocean, according to its website.

The Barclays Africa HQ was based in South Africa up until 2006 and is moving back there, said the spokesperson. “It’s exclusively driven by our desire to work much more closely with Absa.” Barclays acquired Absa in 2005 and owns 56% of company.

So how many from Dubai will be made redundant? “Too soon to tell,” the spokesperson said. “Lots of our 123 employees will be relocated to other parts of Barclays with the majority moving with the regional office to South Africa. We have just started individual discussions with employees to check what their circumstances and preferences are. We will accordingly decide what works best for each of them.”

All that is known for now is that Absa’s Maria Ramos will become head of Africa for the combined Barclays unit in South Africa.

It’s also worth clarifying that Barclays UAE operations are not part of Barclays Africa. In other words, staff at BarCap, Barclays Wealth and in retail operations can rest easy.