South Africa will now limit employment quotas for other nationals including Nigerians due to the high unemployment in the country.
According to Bloomberg, Aaron Motsoaledi, the South African Home Affairs minister, a law is being finalized that will cap the number of foreigners that businesses owned by locals can hire.
The Minister said three other pieces of legislation dealing with immigration and refugees are also under review.
What the minister is saying about the employment quota
The minister said before now, there has been no law that dictates to South Africans the nationality of persons to hire.
“If you are a South African business person who opens a restaurant or a factory, there is no law that tells you what to do, you can bring 100% foreign nationals or 100% South Africans,” Mr Motsoaledi said.
“We are saying there is an issue with unemployment and the absence of those quotas,” he added.
The Minister who said the new quota laws have been several years in the making, said it was as a result of the surging number of employed persons.
“These are issues that have been raised and have been raised sharply now obviously because unemployment is getting worse and worse, and also because Covid worsened these challenges,” he said.
Leader Herman Mashaba, a former Mayor in Johannesburg, had always demanded that migrants who are not documented, be deported.
Julius Malema, the leader of the populist Economic Freedom Fighters party, last month made an attempt to coerce owners of restaurants close to Johannesburg to hire more South Africans than foreigners.
We Nigerians need to create more jobs in Nigeria ourselves. There are lots of opportunities in Nigeria.
We Nigerians need to create jobs in Nigeria ourselves. There are lots of opportunities in the country. But what we get is Nigerians going to Canada, the US, UK, Dubai et cetera. Our educational system should equip our students for entrepreneurship.