The department of home affairs pre-empted its own public comment process when it gazetted SA’s long-awaited new skilled work visa regulations on March 28, raising questions about the process and prompting calls for the regulations to be withdrawn and revised.
This could further delay the new regulations. They have been welcomed in business circles as a step forward in making it easier to attract the foreign skills SA needs, but they also contain clauses that could add new layers of bureaucracy and uncertainty to SA’s cumbersome work visa system.
The department called for public comments by March 29 on the proposed regulations but gazetted an unchanged version a day before the deadline.
The business community has voiced concern about the process and the department’s commitment to engage on the content of the regulations.
It is understood that at a National Economic Development and Labour Council meeting last week the department was asked to withdraw the regulations, pending revisions to take account of comments from the public.
The regulations provide for new remote work visas and for a new points system designed to provide a more flexible pathway for highly qualified and experienced foreigners to work in SA. However, the criteria for the new points system include a subjective one, “the ability to adapt within the republic”, as well as age, which risks excluding older foreign experts who might be highly experienced and well placed to mentor younger professionals.
Other criteria are qualifications, language skills, work experience and whether the applicant has an offer of employment. But there is no clarity on how the rules will interact with the critical skills list, which is in the process of being revised.
The remote work visa rules require foreigners to register with the SA Revenue Service if they stay longer than six months, a requirement that would normally be included in SA’s tax legislation, not immigration legislation.
Unpredictable
There are concerns that, depending on how the minister interprets it, some criteria could make SA’s visa regime for skilled foreigners even more unpredictable and shambolic than it already is. The department’s white paper in November reported a backlog of more than 74,000 visa applications, though the minister in March told parliament this had been reduced to 40,000, with backlogs remaining only in spousal and relative visas.
Over the six years to 2021 the department rejected more than half the applications for skilled work visas, approving a total of only about 26,000 for the entire period, it was found in a review of the regime led by former home affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang last year. Reforming the skilled work visa system to attract more foreign expertise is one of the priorities President Cyril Ramaphosa has identified to boost investment, growth and job creation.
Business Unity SA would comment on the regulations later this week, said CEO Cas Coovadia.
Consumer Goods Council CEO Zinhle Tyikwe on Friday welcomed the planned new rules, saying their effective implementation would support efforts to attract investment.
She hoped the points system would ease the administrative and bureaucratic burden that multinational companies with businesses in SA have been facing to hire skilled staff.
The consumer goods sector is one of the largest employers in SA, and work permit delays have led to some members of the council postponing investment decisions.
“There are skills that are not available locally, and our multinational member companies have been experiencing delays in the processing and issuance of work permits at the department of home affairs. This has not only caused frustration but also affected investment decisions,” Tyikwe said.
She also called for better co-ordination between the departments of home affairs and labour, which is also involved in processing work visas.
“There is evidently increased workload for both departments that has in the past resulted in the administrative delays our members have experienced. We urge both departments to ensure that the new work visa rules will be expeditiously processed and issued so that our affected member companies can recruit much-needed skills,” she said.
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