Calls are growing within and outside the government for the introduction of tough measures to significantly curtail the employment of foreign nationals, amid stubbornly high unemployment rates and rising tensions between locals and immigrants.
Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has warned that entry into South Africa cannot be a “free for all” and revealed the government was mulling over “harsh” penalties against companies that employ illegal foreign nationals to curb the pressing crisis of immigration.
Nxesi charged that some of the illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries were former soldiers who had participated in wars and were still armed to the teeth and involved in crime.
In an interview with Sunday World, Nxesi said the country’s porous borders had effectively led to the distortion of the labour market and were a threat to the security of the country.
“We can be able to stop this thing of employment of foreigners at the expense of locals by coming up with very harsh laws, punitive measures against the employers,” he said.
Nxesi said companies continue to hire undocumented foreign nationals because they know they would get away with it by just paying small fines.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the 27th annual summit of the National Economic Development and Labour Council, which was held at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.
Nxesi’s comments come as tensions are rising between locals and foreign nationals over jobs and healthcare.
Nxesi told the Nedlac summit that it was incorrect to label South Africans as xenophobic on the issue of migration. He elaborated further when speaking to Sunday World, saying a deeper analysis was needed.
“The argument is, it is not xenophobia. It is the poor fighting over scarce resources. If South Africans don’t have jobs and they see that employers prefer foreigners, they are bound to raise this in the midst of this high unemployment in the country,” he said.
Nxesi said the government was not against the employment of foreign nationals. “We are not saying that you can’t recruit people from outside. It must be orderly and it must be the legal people. The major problem we are seated with is illegal people,” he said.
Government was also considering quotas on the employment of foreign nationals, Nxesi said.
He said even when countries were striving to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area, they remained sovereign states.
“Even if we were to talk about free trade, free movement of people and goods, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have borders,” Nxesi said.
“If it is a free for all, it is a serious security matter. People can come and destroy in this country and run back to their countries, where do you trace them?”
In February, Nxesi gazetted the Draft National Labour Migration Policy and Employment Services Amendment Bill for public comment. The bill seeks to introduce significant changes to the current laws on employment of foreign nationals.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is discussing radical policies that will significantly curtail the employment of foreign nationals in the country by compelling companies to limit the employment of foreign nationals to between 20% and 30%.
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