Article credit: Cape Argus report (subscription needed)
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has clarified that all businesses – not just those in the hospitality or construction sectors – were required to have a workforce of at least 60% SA citizens in their employ, says a Cape Argus report.
Gigaba said his department was preparing for a ‘mass inspection’ of businesses countrywide to ensure they complied. He added: ‘The risk of not employing South Africans is that it endangers the lives of foreigners and the property of companies. If you look at the (xenophobic) violence that erupted in 2015, it started precisely because of a company at Isipingo in Durban that employed non-South Africans, and South Africans attacked the company.’
He said the regulation was not new, but had been tightened to flush out companies that were flouting the law. ‘What happened was that we changed a regulation, which in the past said that only a minimum of five South Africans needed to be employed by a company for it to obtain work visas.’ Gigaba said non-compliant companies would be fined heavily and have their licences reviewed, while managers and owners could be jailed for up to two years if the department decided to take legal action against them.
