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The Gauteng government has released the Gauteng Township Economic Development Bill for public comment.
Announced for the first time in the 2019 state of the province speech, the bill seeks to improve the regulatory management of the municipality’s economy to ease the regulatory burden on local businesses.
While the bill covers a number of issues, including job opportunities and growth, it also expressly prohibits foreign nationals from engaging in economic activities reserved for citizens or individuals 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,” says 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 specialized knowledge 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 municipal revenues.
You can read the full invoice below.
national legislation
The bill comes after Labor and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi said the government is seeking new regulations to limit the employment of foreign nationals in South Africa.
Nxesi was responding to the ongoing violence and protest action by the South African trucking sector in July, with some of the main complaints centering on the job losses of migrant workers.
Speaking in an interview with eNCA, Nxesi said that the new legislation would not only be limited to the road and freight sector, but also 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 aliens.” Some of them are refugees and they are supposed to be here legally, ”he said.
“The problem we have to deal with is illegal people who have been employed without any Internal Affairs documents.”
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.
Read: South Africa’s terrifying unemployment figures are coming
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