Cape Argus reports that Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has clarified that all businesses - not just those in the hospitality or construction sectors - were required to have a workforce of at least 60% South African citizens in their employ.  

Gigaba said his department was preparing for a “mass inspection” of businesses countrywide to ensure they complied.  “This has nothing to do with xenophobia, in fact xenophobic violence is what we want to prevent.  We must prioritise the employment of South Africans, and businesses across the board have to comply.”  Gigaba said the regulation was not new, but had been tightened to flush out companies that were flouting the law.  “What happened was that we changed a regulation, which in the past said that only a minimum of five South Africans needed to be employed by a company for it to obtain work visas.  What companies have done was to hide behind all sorts of very insulting allegations such as South Africans are lazy, they are criminal, there are jobs that South Africans don’t want to take,” Gigaba indicated.

• Read this report by Siyabonga Sesant in full at IOL News
• See too, Government spending millions to deport illegal immigrants, at SowetanLive

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