Organised labour has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that the government would hire 10,000 additional labour inspectors this year to enforce labour legislation.
Ramaphosa announced during his state of the nation address in Cape Town on Thursday that police, home affairs and labour inspectors would work together to crack down on violations of existing immigration, labour and other laws.
“Employers that hire foreign nationals without the required visas will face the full might of the law. To tighten enforcement, we will hire an additional 10,000 labour inspectors this year. As we undertake these interventions, we insist that the laws of our country must be observed by everyone,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africa is widely reputed to have one of the most protective labour law regimes, although implementation and enforcement of the laws face challenges, leading to uneven application, regulatory backlogs and growing tension between safeguarding workers’ rights and maintaining labour market flexibility.
Cosatu spokesperson Zanele Sabela said the additional labour inspectors would “augment the work of the existing 2,300 labour inspectors who are overstretched trying to enforce compliance across the country”.
“The federation is pleased to hear that those who employ foreign nationals without the necessary visas will face the full might of the law, because we know employers do this so they can exploit workers,” Sabela said.
She said workers were underpaid, worked long hours in unsafe, unsanitary environments, and “sometimes workers are made to live on work premises, in inhumane dwellings”.
The federation is pleased to hear that those who employ foreign nationals without the necessary visas will face the full might of the law, because we know employers do this so they can exploit workers.
— Zanele Sabela, Cosatu spokesperson
“The federation looks forward to working closely with the labour inspectorate to ensure workers are paid the increased national minimum wage of R30.23 as of March 1 2026.
“Cosatu is also pleased that labour inspectors are now empowered to enforce the payment of workers’ pension fund contributions to relevant funds within seven days of deduction from workers’ salaries. This ought to help significantly decrease the total outstanding contributions of R7.26bn,” Sabela said.
Business Day reported in January that the number of employers ― including municipalities ― that had defaulted on pension, medical aid, provident and retirement fund contributions has doubled in a year, affecting nearly 600,000 employees with outstanding contributions exceeding R7bn.
According to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), which regulates the country’s financial institutions, the number of defaulters surged from 4,000 in 2023 to 7,700 in 2024 and 15,521 in 2025.
National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) general secretary Narius Moloto said businesses benefited from hiring illegal immigrants.
“We know car guarding in shopping malls and centres is done by Congolese; garden work and domestic work are done by Malawians and Mozambicans, while repair work is done by Zimbabweans in the main,” Moloto said.
However, Moloto said Nactu welcomed the additional inspectors, provided they are the right people with passion for the inspection work and receive proper training.
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said they would respond later.
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