National Labour Migration Policy a throwback to apartheid-era job reservation

1 March 2022

Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Dr Michael Cardo MP

The draft National Labour Migration Policy (NLMP) released yesterday for public comment is nothing more than an atavistic throwback to apartheid-era job reservation, which was consigned to the dustbin of history in 1979, well before the transition into democracy. The ANC, as usual, is stuck in the past.

The document rests on two conceptual flaws.

Firstly, it suggests that foreign nationals are responsible for South Africa’s sky-high unemployment rate, which now sits at 46.6%. This is a textbook piece of scapegoating. South Africans cannot find jobs because the ANC has run the economy into the ground, and because our labour laws and regulations are so inflexible, not because of foreign nationals.

Secondly, since the government is largely economically illiterate, it believes there is a finite pie of job opportunities to be divided up and parcelled out. That is why the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, intends to slap quotas on the number of documented foreign nationals who can be employed in sectors like agriculture, hospitality and tourism, and construction. This is a short-sighted and xenophobic move; it reeks of populism and won’t have a shred of impact on our unemployment crisis.

Furthermore, the proposed amendment of the Employment Services Act, enabling the Minister to set quotas according to economic sector, occupational category or geographical area, establishes a dangerous precedent. Statutory employment quotas are a draconian and unconstitutional intervention, redolent of the most backward-looking regimes.

Mooted amendments to the Small Business Act, preventing foreign nationals from establishing small, medium and micro-enterprises, and from trading in some sectors of the economy, are equally preposterous.

We need to focus on the real causes of unemployment, not scapegoat foreign nationals. We should also be looking to attract immigrants with critical skills, and making it as easy as possible for them to come to South Africa. There is a positive correlation between skilled immigration and economic growth.

Yesterday, the DA’s Federal Council adopted a forward-looking policy on migration, rooted in the notion of opportunity, not fear; and we shall be releasing it in due course as an antidote to Minister Nxesi’s myopia.

Issued by Michael Cardo, DA Shadow Minister of Employment and Labour, 1 March 2022