Policy: Labour migration changes ready ‘by March’?

Once operational, the national labour migration policy now in its final stages of development is expected to ‘facilitate the employment of foreign nationals’ in a manner consistent with the objects of the 2014 Employment Services Act, 2002 Immigration Act and relevant international conventions. This, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch, was confirmed on Friday in a Department of Employment & Labour media statement among other things noting the proposed new policy’s positive implications for work permit turnaround times; the ‘60/40 ratio’ affecting business visas (on which ‘clarity’ is apparently required); and implementing ‘the skills transfer plan’. No further detail was provided beyond a vague reference to the ‘skills and economic stimulus … immigrants can bring’ – and unspecified sectors likely either to be ‘strictly reserved to South Africans’ or subjected to ‘quotas’.

Expected to be ready by next March – presumably for Cabinet approval before being released for public comment – the draft policy will nevertheless miss a deadline imposed by the Southern African Development Community six years ago. The ‘roadmap’ for its development was finalised in 2016. This notwithstanding, speaking at last week’s public service employment branch performance awards ceremony, Employment & Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi saw fit to mention the ‘sensitivities’ entailed in bringing ‘order’ to the ‘difficult area’ of migrant labour given recent ‘violent and unlawful attacks on non-nationals and their property’. He appears to have blamed them on the ‘divisive cheap labour’ practices of employers perceived to be ‘squeezing’ South African nationals out of employment ‘in certain sectors’.