The Department of Home Affairs issues about 18 000 work permits each year, of which roughly half are for expatriates, with the other half being issued to small firms for the importation of scarce skills and to Zimbabweans.
Because of the massive increase in infrastructure development in South Africa, the number of expatriates entering the county has sharply increased, by as much as 40%, over the past 18 months, according to Corallie Pringle, managing director of Corporate Relocations.
Compounding the skills shortage is a growing exodus of skills. Elliott International joint CEO Brad Barker says: “There has been a noticeable increase in business people exiting the country. The ratio until 18 months ago was 1:1, but is now nearer 3:1 in favour of departures, though this is not necessarily emigration.”
South African corporates are globalising at an accelerating rate — which is one with the international trend — and South Africans are being sent wherever their employers need them. In particular, South Africa’s expansion into Africa has involved a considerable number of skilled South Africans relocating north of the border.
Barker adds: “We’re not seeing departures at the same level as the mid-Eighties to early-Nineties, but there’s a noticeable increase.”
For inbound people, Pringle claims it has become easier to get work permits, though there are still difficulties relating to intra-company transfer work permits, which are restricted to a maximum of two years.
Zahida Ebrahim, attorney at corporate law firm Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs, says legislation is in the works to increase work permits to four years. She agrees that more skilled people are entering the country through the quota permit system.
To qualify, foreign personnel for local employers have to match one of the categories identified by government as having a skills shortage, “though it’s not comprehensive enough nor fully reflective of South Africa’s needs”, says Ebrahim.
Whereas most immigrants came from Britain and the rest of Europe in the past, the new wave of arrivals is “across the board”, and, in particular, there has been a sharp increase in the number of applicants from Zimbabwe, including many who apply despite not yet having a local job.
“As to the process, it remains complicated by the fact that quite apart from the administrative challenges there is the ongoing under-staffing of the department of home affairs,” says Ebrahim. In addition, she sees a need for human resources departments across the country to train specialist staff in this area, if they need to recruit foreign skills.
The process involves far more than just recruitment and the application for a work permit — Ebrahim says there is a detailed compliance process and proper ongoing reporting until the conclusion of the contract.
She lists one problem as the fact that different home affairs offices have different policies, giving work permits for different time-periods, for instance.