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South Africa Moves to Attract Skills Essential to Enable Economic Growth

CC BY 2.0 / Nico Roets / Johannesburg
Johannesburg - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 13.10.2023
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During his address to the nation in February 2022, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Pretoria would overhaul its visa system to make it easier than it is at present for foreigners to enter the country for tourism, business and work.
The South African Department of Home Affairs has invited corporate employers to participate in the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES) pilot project.
The initiative, the ministry said in a notice, aims to facilitate the recruitment of skilled labor and immigration management, particularly in the processing of applications for senior executives, technical staff, corporate officers and investors.
The department is also convinced that a review of the visa framework in turn seeks to enable economic growth and improve the efficiency of the work visa application process.

Participating companies, the ministry said, will be given priority in processing work visa applications, "because of the reduced requirements and supporting documents".

Authorities have identified a number of criteria needed for employers to participate in the program, which include evidence of a company or individual's financial wellbeing for hiring foreigners.

"To qualify for membership of the TES, an employer, investor, or business needs to demonstrate that it has the financial strength to employ a foreign national, that it runs training programs for South African citizens and that it is a good corporate citizen," the notice read.

TES membership will be obtainable both locally and at all South African High Commissions overseas. "Customers with corporate accounts are encouraged to apply," the department added.
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The TES was first discussed in the Department of Home Affairs' White Paper in 2017, but it was only this spring that the government introduced it and it was prompted by President Ramaphosa's plans to overhaul the work visa system.
According to a report by Operation Vulindlela - part of the Presidential Project Management Office in charge of supporting economic recovery - processing a work visa in South Africa can take more than 48 weeks whereas the process, according to media, takes only a maximum of 12 weeks in Kenya and eight weeks in Nigeria.
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