SA’s visa shake-up signals shift towards attracting global talent

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JEREMY MAGGS: South Africa, I read, is once again rewriting its immigration rules, with cabinet now approving an updated white paper that, as I understand it, could bring some change to visas, to skills mobility and perhaps importantly, how the country attracts foreign talent.

Government says it’s about tightening systems and aligning with economic priorities.

Businesses long argued that a slow, unpredictable visa regime is costing the country investment and growth.

Marisa Jacobs is with me, managing director at Xpatweb and also Business Unity South Africa representative on the Immigration Advisory Board. I want to discuss whether these latest reforms are going to fix the system or is this just another layer of complexity?

Marisa, to the point I’ve just made, and welcome to you, we’ve seen multiple reforms over the years, why should business believe this one is any different?

MARISA JACOBS: I think business always wants to be positive and wants to believe that the changes can really bring forward some change and allow business to attract the skills.

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The way in which the paper has been drafted certainly instils in us the belief that this will be different and that this is a move in the right direction with a couple of the changes in here really showing. Once implemented, I think we will really see some difference.

JEREMY MAGGS: Marisa, what key changes then are noteworthy in this respect?

MARISA JACOBS: I think from an employer perspective, the first one is the merging of two visa categories, the critical skills work visa and the general work visa into one category called the skilled worker visa. This simplifies the visa process.

It will fall under the points-based system, which means it’s a more predictable system through which employers can attract talent. I think that’s the big challenge from a business perspective that impacts directly on work visas.

Then the other one of course is digitisation. We’ve been talking for a long time about digitisation.

The white paper now brings into law the digitisation of the Department of Home Affairs, and also gives us a glimpse into what the plans are from a Department of Home Affairs perspective in terms of this big picture, digitisation for the department.

JEREMY MAGGS: Do you think this is fundamentally about enabling growth or simply tightening control over immigration as it exists?

MARISA JACOBS: I think it’s definitely a bit of both.

There’s big talk around using immigration to grow the economy, which I think is vital, and for a long time we’ve not really seen the Department of Home Office playing an active role in terms of being an economic enabler and how foreign direct investment and attracting skills, which the Department of Home Affairs is so important for, and it’s an important role they play.

So definitely on that side but also, of course, the department is very much at the forefront of securing our borders and securing our citizenship data. So definitely a bit of both.

JEREMY MAGGS: Is it too early to say that this is now going to make it easier for skilled professionals to choose South Africa? Is the jury still out, do you think?

MARISA JACOBS: I agree with you. I think it’s too early to say, but I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.

An example of that is the work visa rights for the spouses of work visa holders. For a long time, we’ve not seen any budging from the Department of Home Affairs’ side in terms of this suggestion.

They haven’t quite rolled it out as automatic work authorisation, which is what we were lobbying for. But they have said that there will be a relaxed regime for the spouses of foreigners coming in. So that’s one of the examples. But definitely I do believe so.

JEREMY MAGGS: All predicated of course, Marisa, on whether the Department of Home Affairs is equipped to implement these changes. The last thing you want to see is another bottleneck.

MARISA JACOBS: Absolutely. That probably is the biggest nervousness from our side, is great suggestions, but it’s no secret that the department struggles with resources, and implementing this of course, is very much dependent on having those resources.

Of course, the digitalisation is one of the ways within which the minister is trying to use the limited resources to actually tackle the big volume of applications that come in.

But again, moving resources from human to digital are still resources that are needed. So that’s definitely the big question mark.

JEREMY MAGGS: If you look at this white paper, how do you think we compare globally? Do you think we are starting to become a little more competitive or at this stage, are we still falling behind peer economies?

MARISA JACOBS: This is definitely the biggest move that we’ve seen in the right direction, other than of course, the Trusted Employer Scheme that was introduced two years ago, but this is definitely putting us on the global stage, this is a massive move in the right direction.

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We’re definitely starting to see how we as South Africa can compare to those big global markets, and especially when it comes to attracting investment and skills.

JEREMY MAGGS: So cabinet has approved an updated white paper. What’s the timeline here?

MARISA JACOBS: There is no official timeline, but what I can say is the move from the draft paper to the approved paper by parliament has been quite a quick move.

From December last year, to getting in the draft comments through to the final, it has been four months. That’s quite a quick move in terms of white papers. So I am cautiously optimistic that the next phase will move with equal speed.

JEREMY MAGGS: Marisa Jacobs, thank you very much indeed, managing director at Xpatweb and as I mentioned, also Business Unity South Africa representative on the Immigration Advisory Board.