Bloomberg News reports that the gridlock affecting work-permit applications in SA was limiting expansion by German companies in the country and threatening operations that supported 100,000 jobs, an industry association warned.
While the country is taking steps to improve the approval system and make it easier and quicker to get permits, the snarl-up that was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic has limited the entry of skilled workers. Between 2014 and 2021 just 25,298 skilled-worker permits were approved. “The visa matter spans the entire hierarchy of German business in SA” ranging from CEOs to technicians, the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Thursday. It commented that this was not only a concern to German business but also to the country itself as German companies operating in SA provided jobs for 100,000 people along their supply chains. Companies operating in SA struggle to find skilled workers, a result of a dysfunctional education system and worsened by emigration. The chamber said companies not being able to get permits for executives at local subsidiaries was endangering investment and “the same goes for technicians not being able to enter the country, while there are no skilled workers available to service machinery.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antony Sguazzin at BusinessLive
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