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In its Wednesday editorial, Business Day notes that plans are afoot to introduce quotas for South Africans in certain sectors of the economy where foreign employees dominate.
The paper says this raises questions not only about the practicality of the measure and its implications for business, but also about its justice and wisdom. Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi recently gave notice in parliament of these plans, which he said were necessary because of the number of foreign nationals employed in certain sectors such as agriculture, restaurants and the private security and hospitality industries. In terms of the plan being drawn up by his department, the minister could have the right to set sectoral targets or quotas for foreign nationals in certain sectors. The minister said it was well known that employers preferred to hire foreign nationals. In some cases, this had to do with skills, but in other cases it was a matter of exploiting cheap labour. Business Day argues that what is needed is in-depth research into why employers prefer to hire foreigners, and then to address that issue rather than impose yet another legal restraint on employers. Immigrants the world over are known to be willing to work harder and longer hours as they try to build their lives in a new country. Those in SA are said to probably be no different, which is perhaps why employers prefer to hire them. But, SA workers have to meet this challenge head-on rather than rely on the state to protect them.
- Read the full editorial at BusinessLive
- Read too, Plan to limit hiring of foreign nationals not xenophobic, says Nxesi, at SowetanLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page