Businesses tap Home Affairs’ visa reforms to recruit foreign talent and boost tourism

Businesses are using recent Department of Home Affairs (DHA) innovations to recruit the best foreign talent.

Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber listed his department’s successes since taking over the portfolio last year as he presented his budget for the upcoming financial year.

The department introduced a host of measures last year, including the ability for companies to register as priority recruiters of foreign employees.

Engineers wanted

The Trusted Employer Scheme (TES) was introduced following a review of South Africa’s work visa adjudications that found the system to have an “unpredictable nature”.  

Businesses looking to employ skilled foreign workers are able to apply to the DHA for recognition as a trusted employer to access a streamlined path to recruitment.

The criteria for approval include a track record of compliance with labour and tax regulations. Those approved are rewarded with reduced requirements for a predetermined number of visa applications.

Schrieber said on Thursday that one company had used the scheme to recruit 246 software engineers and Eskom had recruited 147 nuclear engineers to work at Koeberg.

The minister did not reveal the total number of skilled foreign workers to have recently been given a TES visa, but confirmed 71 companies were TES-approved.

Home Affairs winning

A similar programme exists for tourism companies called the Truster Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS).

Schreiber boasted that 65 tour operators were approved during phase one of the programme, with 45 more having been approved during phase two.

This has resulted in the creation of at least 1 200 jobs in the sector, and South Africa has welcomed roughly 17 000 tourists from China and India alone since February through TTOS businesses.

At the other end of the scale, DHA have facilitated the deportation of 46 000 foreign nationals.

“[That is] the highest figure in more than five years and more than countries like France and Germany combined,” said Schreiber.

Additionally, illegal border crossing detections have increased 215% thanks to drone and body camera technology deployed at the border.

R11 billion budget

Other successes include the clearing of a backlog of 300 000 visa applications and the issuing of 3.6 million smart IDs — the most used in a financial year.

Schreiber announced he was tabling an R11 billion budget, an increase of over R300 million for each of the next three years.

The Border Management Authority will receive R5.5 billion over the next three years.

“Home Affairs is on a transformative journey. If we can make Home Affairs work, so too can South Africa work,”

“If this is what Home Affairs could do in just one year, imagine what we can do in five,” beamed the minister.

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