African immigrants living in South Africa should be ready for fresh huddles as South Africa’s Department of Employment and Labour is looking to formalize a new employment policy which will restrict the number of foreign nationals working in specific sectors of the economy. Presenting the new plan to parliament, Employment and Labour director-general Thobile Lamati said that this employment policy is currently being developed by the department’s employment services branch.

According to him, “If the minister is given the legal right to set sectoral targets, what would happen was that in areas for instance where there was a preference for foreign nationals – such as the restaurant sector – the minister could make a determination on a percentage of the foreign nationals allowed (to work) in the sector.” He added that “this is not a new thing. It happens all over the world and is part of labour market employment policies. We are not sure if the target will increase or decrease but we think the employment policy will go a long way in addressing the number of challenges we have in the labour market.”

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Later in the presentation, Labour minister Thulas Nxesi also addressed the issue directly, noting that South African citizens had been disadvantaged by the current system. He noted that this is particularly problem in agriculture, the restaurant industry, hospitality and private security. “For some reason, employers have preferred foreign nationals over South Africans. Some of the reasons in other sectors have to do with skills but even that is regulated.

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“Sometimes it is because it is cheap labour that they can easily exploit. You can’t sit with millions of unemployed South Africans and in certain sectors employ foreign without regulations”, adding that “we must introduce those quotas and (stick to them) ‘very hard’.  In doing that we must not be seen to be xenophobic or violating international conventions, but at the same time protect our national interests. So it is going to be a balancing act.”

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It could be recalled that in September 2019, the Department of Small Business Development said it is working on a new law that will restrict foreigners from working in certain sections of the economy. The small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni had said in an interview that the legislation in line with other countries – such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe – that have regulations specifying the sectors where foreign nationals are not allowed to participate. While Ntshavheni did not specify exactly which sectors would be regulated, she indicated that the new legislation would be heavily informed by the above laws used in other African countries.

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“If you look at the retail sector, when we all grew up our spaza shops were run by ourselves, by our neighbours, we took over shops from our mothers,” she said at the time.“If you (look) now then that is not the demographic of who is running our spaza shops.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry