This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BL Premium reports that according to Western Cape MEC for finance & economic opportunities Mireille Wenger, decisive action is required to address challenges pertaining to SA’s “very poor” visa regime that is blighting investment and job creation efforts.
Organised business has repeatedly raised concerns about the delays in processing visas, which it says harms investment and economic growth. To gather more specific information on challenges experienced by business on the issue, the provincial department of economic development & tourism conducted a survey at the end of November 2022. A total of 133 responses were received from businesses in a range of sectors. In a statement on Monday, Wenger reported as follows on the results: “A critical finding of this survey was that 78% of respondents rated the immigration application system in SA as very poor compared to other countries the respondents have operations in. Another deeply concerning finding was that 26% of businesses moved their operations overseas, costing countless jobs in SA, as a result of the serious challenges they faced with the national visa system.” The survey found the main reason respondents required a visa was for work purposes, “to employ critical skills that are not available in SA, and because their businesses need to employ foreign staff”. The top three visas applied for were work visa (19%), critical skills work visa (18%) and immigration visa (15%). The top three complaints with SA’s visa application systems pertained to delays in the approval process, applicants not receiving feedback on their applications and lack of an escalation mechanism for complaints. The top three measures taken by the respondents to address the challenges experienced with the visa application process were moving operations abroad (26%), employing fewer staff (17%) and scaling down operations (17%).
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page