The news that the department of home affairs has at last invited large companies to submit expressions of interest to participate in a trusted employer scheme is as welcome as it is timely.
The scheme, which the government intends to pilot before rolling it out more broadly, would fast-track approvals for skilled foreign workers, leaving most of the verification and processing of applications to approved “trusted” employers most in need of such workers.
Making it easier for firms to import foreign professional and managerial skills has become an ever more urgent priority for SA at a time when economic growth and job creation are stagnant, foreign direct investment is going elsewhere and SA is rapidly losing its claim to be a “gateway” to Africa.
A dearth of skills has long been one of the key constraints on economic growth. Without much-needed scarce skills, most sectors will struggle to innovate and increase productivity. Skilled foreigners can bring expertise, transfer technology and train locals. They are also needed to plug the gaps left by emigration and SA’s underperforming education system.
The dearth of skills and constraints on skilled immigration also put existing foreign investment at risk and deter potential new investors. Multinationals in SA, or those looking to come to SA, need to be able to bring in specialised expertise and move professionals and managers around their global operations. That applies even more so to those multinationals, whether foreign or local, that look to SA as a hub for their operations in Africa. The more cumbersome and unpredictable SA’s skilled visa regime is, the more likely it is they will head for Dubai or Kenya as a location for their African headquarters.
What’s more, all the evidence is that far from worsening unemployment, as xenophobic critics charge, skilled immigration helps create jobs — especially for unskilled and semi-skilled South Africans. A 2021 study found that a 1% increase in skilled immigration would lead to a 1.25% increase in employment for South Africans with less than a secondary level education.
The study was cited in a report on SA’s work visa system commissioned by the presidency from a team led by former home affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang and published earlier this year. In their report, they made a convincing and comprehensive case for SA to increase skilled immigration significantly — and to make this far easier and more efficient.
It also uncovered just how disastrously inefficient the system has been in recent years. There are four different types of visas that enable SA to import skilled workers. The government issued just more than 25,000 across all four visa types from 2014-2021. That’s an average of only 3,600 a year — hardly half of the number of taxpayers who emigrate in a bad year. In other words, skilled immigration doesn’t even begin to close the skills gap.
It’s not just that SA turns down more than half the applications it receives for skilled visas — the 16,000 critical skills visas issued over the six years to 2021 was less than half the number of applications. It’s also the time and the quantum of documentation it takes, which the Msimang inquiry found is way more than in countries such as Kenya or Nigeria.
The Msimang team recommended a series of urgent reforms to the visa system, based on success stories from other countries. The Trusted Employer Scheme was high on the list. It bypasses much of the bureaucracy crippling the system and devolves the responsibility to the trusted private sector employers that most need the skills — and know best which skills they need and which foreigners are best qualified to supply them.
It’s an idea which has long been on the cards. It is quite a breakthrough that the government is finally trying it out. One concern though is the extent to which the department seems already to be tying it up in red tape and multiple objectives. Of course, it is essential to ensure that trusted employers are appropriately vetted and that no chancers get through. It is also important to ensure the skills that are imported generate more skills locally. But the complicated points system set out in the department’s notice, along with the investment conference and employment commitments that are required, all ring alarm bells.
So does government’s apparent attempt to pick which sectors will qualify and which will not. We can’t help fearing that an overlay of bureaucracy could sink a good idea. We just have to hope it will swim, and soon.
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