{"id":414413,"date":"2020-07-08T08:52:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T06:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=414413"},"modified":"2020-07-08T08:52:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T06:52:21","slug":"government-looking-at-new-laws-to-limit-the-employment-of-foreigners-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/414413\/government-looking-at-new-laws-to-limit-the-employment-of-foreigners-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Government looking at new laws to limit the employment of foreigners in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi says that government is looking at new regulations to limit the employment of foreign nationals in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Nxesi was responding to ongoing violence and protest action by South Africans truck sector, with some of the major complaints focusing on the loss of jobs to immigrant workers.<\/p>\n<p>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 other industries which employ a high number of foreign workers.<\/p>\n<p>These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The hospitality sector;<\/li>\n<li>Restaurants;<\/li>\n<li>Security;<\/li>\n<li>Farming and agriculture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;We are looking into this matter in a proper way. However, it is important to remember that we can&#8217;t just &#8216;do away with foreigners&#8217;. Some of them are refugees and legally supposed to be here,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The issue that we have to deal with is the illegal people which have been employed without any papers from Home Affairs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nxesi said that the country&#8217;s labour laws state that South Africans should be given preference, but he noted that some bodies were pushing for a complete ban on foreigners in the trucking sector.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e6Zn1kvm4aw\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Nxeisi&#8217;s latest comments echo those he made at the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/speeches\/unscrupulous-employers-27-sep-2019-0000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">end of 2019<\/a><\/strong> when he said that his department would clamp down on employers not complying with the country\u2019s labour laws, by unlawfully hiring foreign workers.<\/p>\n<p>Nxesi said that the influx and employment of displaced foreign nationals in the country was not of their making and that the situation was \u2018getting out of hand\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot in this day-and-age continue with the employment of foreign nationals, and think there will be peace if you are going to take low-level jobs of low-skilled people and give it to displaced people,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said the intention of employing displaced people was a deliberate act by unscrupulous employers to pay them \u2018starvation wages\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intention is to employ displaced people and pay them starvation wages, make them to work long hours, make them to sleep on top of the shops. The intention is very simple \u2013 it is designed to boost profits through cheap labour,\u201d said the minister.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Small Business Development has said that it is also <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/343169\/new-law-to-block-foreigners-from-working-in-certain-sectors-in-south-africa\/\">working<\/a> <\/strong>on a new law that will restrict foreigners from working in certain sections of the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the legislation in line with other countries \u2013 such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe \u2013 that have regulations specifying the sectors where foreign nationals are not allowed to participate.<\/p>\n<p>Ntshavheni said that South Africans have a penchant to hire other South Africans, and that locals will take up the chance for employment if more opportunities are offered to them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not only introducing legislation to say which sectors are restricted to South Africans, but we are also establishing support mechanisms for those South African who are operating in these sectors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/414233\/edcon-agrees-to-sell-stake-in-edgars-to-rival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Edcon agrees to sell stake in Edgars to rival<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi says that government is looking at new regulations to limit the employment of foreign nationals in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":254195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-414413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414413"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414429,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414413\/revisions\/414429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}