BusinessLive reports that Operation Vulindlela, the joint delivery unit in the Treasury and the Presidency, is overseeing a review of the work permit regime, which has been a constraint on growth and investment for at least two decades.

Sean Phillips, head of the unit, briefed MPs on Wednesday on the progress made since the unit was established last October. The aim of the unit is to “unblock” constraints on growth and oversee the implementation of microeconomic reforms by government departments. Immigration policy has been hampered by red tape due to political opposition to the importing of scarce skills. The government has put increasingly onerous legislation in place on the assumption that skilled immigrants take the jobs of South Africans. “One of the key reforms is to review regulatory processes for issuing work permits to address the problem that business finds the application process unnecessarily onerous and ineffective. The growth of the economy is constrained by insufficient skills in a number of areas,” said Phillips. In February, the Department of Home Affairs published a critical skills list under the Immigration Act, which set out occupations where skills were in short supply. However, the list was decried as farcical. Phillips said the Presidency was now co-ordinating a process with the five government departments involved to broaden the critical skills list. It was also overseeing the full rollout of the e-visa system.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carol Paton at BusinessLive

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