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Provincial and national government authorities are increasingly seeking legislation to limit the hiring of foreigners in South Africa, as tensions against immigrants rise across the country.
More than 20 trucks were bombarded with gasoline and destroyed on various roads in the Heidelberg area last week, as protesters marched in Durban on Monday (November 23) calling for the deportation of foreign nationals.
In response to the protests, KZN Prime Minister Sihle Zikalala said that the Department of Labor and Home Affairs is currently involved in a process of developing legislation that addresses the employment of non-South Africans in all sectors of the economy, including road freight.
“However, we must reiterate that we will not allow anarchy to threaten our economy, even more so as we emerge from the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Therefore, we call on those who have grievances to work with us and not close our roads, carry torches or resort to attacking truckers as has happened before,” he said.
In a July 2020 interview, Labor Minister Thulas Nxesi said that the new legislation would not be limited to the road and freight sector, but would also apply to other industries that employ large numbers of foreign workers. .
These include:
- The hospitality sector;
- Restaurants;
- Security;
- Agriculture and agriculture.
“We are investigating this matter properly. However, it is important to remember that we cannot just “kill the foreigners.” Some of them are refugees and they are supposed to be here legally, ”he said.
“The problem that we have to deal with is illegal people who have been employed without any documents from Internal Affairs.”
Nxesi said the country’s labor laws state that preference should be given to South Africans, but noted that some agencies are pushing for foreigners to be completely banned from the trucking sector.
Municipal workers
In September 2020, the Gauteng government published the Gauteng Municipality Economic Development Bill which expressly prohibits foreign citizens to engage in economic activities reserved for citizens of, or persons with ‘permanent residence’ status in South Africa.
“Every citizen and every person with permanent residence in the republic has the right to freely exercise their trade, occupation or profession in the province”, states the bill.
The bill also indicates that a list of commercial activities that will be exclusively and exclusively reserved for the ownership and operation of citizens.
This list of business activities can be updated at any time based on a number of guiding principles including:
- Affirming black people in general and African people in particular, women, youth and people with disabilities;
- Increasing levels of the country’s Gross Domestic Product;
- Upstream production of primary resources or industrialization;
- The exploitation of the experience developed and readily available in the republic;
- Potential or ability to absorb a large number of people into employment;
- On-the-job training opportunities for the unskilled and unemployed and recent graduates;
- Location opportunities;
- Potential to create new sources of income to expand the tax base and income of municipalities.
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