A number of South African firms refuse to employ skilled foreigners because of nightmarish immigration bureaucracy, say recruiting agents and immigration experts. This despite an immigration law that the department of home affairs amended last week to help firms combat the domestic skills shortage by employing skilled foreigners.
The amendments, which the Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said were mostly technical, were passed in the National Assembly, but have not yet been ratified by President Thabo Mbeki.
Many of the amendments rectify omissions in the existing law and in some cases take the law back to the status quo before amendments were introduced in 2004, said Julian Pokroy, the chairperson of the committee on immigration at South Africa’s Law Society.
One amendment extends the permit period for an intra-company transfer work period from two years to four years, which Pokroy said is closer to the international benchmark of five years. These permits go to workers who have been transferred by multinational firms to their South African subsidiaries.
Another amendment refers to the quotas issued by the department of home affairs for permits that can go to individuals with skills defined as scarce or critical. The current amendment extends the quotas from work permit applicants to people applying for permanent residence who have a permanent job offer.
In a submission to Parliament, the Congress of South African Trade Unions called the amendments “piecemeal” and said that they had not been developed in a consultative manner. Cosatu also raised concerns that there was not enough focus on developing local skills to meet the skills shortage or to ensuring the transfer of skills.
Pokroy said that home affairs had promised to overhaul the immigration legislation in 2007, but it was unlikely that it would meet this deadline. He said that the problem was not with the principle of the law, but its interpretation, adding that several South African high commissions used outdated forms and guidelines in processing immigration documents.
“I could place many more people if the laws were easier,” said Sylvia Rapke, who manages a recruitment agency that places German-speaking workers. “I find companies who tell me right away, we’re not prepared to go through the whole work permit process.” This could pose particular problems for businesses that require foreign language-speakers such as call centres and tour operators, she said.
Julia Willand, the director of Immigration and Consulting South Africa, said several recruitment agencies told her that companies would not accept individuals who did not already have permanent residence in South Africa.
Long delays in processing work permits posed a serious obstacle to companies that wanted to hire new recruits “tomorrow”, she said.
Willand said that this week’s amendment to extend the intra- company transfer permit to four years was positive. But she said that many other changes were necessary. In February, the department of home affairs introduced quota permits for certain job categories that would expedite work permits for individuals with critical skills. Willand said that some quota categories were obscure while other important skill categories were missing, such as business skills.
Quota permit applicants must still have their qualifications verified by the South African Qualifications Authority (Saqa). Although Saqa had greatly reduced its turn-around time, it might still take a month to process, she said.
Katrin Starzmann, the head of the immigration department at the International Business Network, said that she knew a German national who had come to South Africa on a visitor’s permit. Although he found a potential employer who would hire him to train people in glass manufacturing, Saqa took a year to evaluate his qualifications and he decided to return home.
Time delays also impact on investors who will not invest if they are unsure whether they will be permitted to stay in the country, said Starzmann.