LABOUR MIGRATION: WHITE PAPER GAZETTED

LABOUR MIGRATION: WHITE PAPER GAZETTED

• 29 May 2025
• Labour Law
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: In her 2026 May Day commemoration speech, Employment & Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth included the Employment Services Amendment Bill in a list of legislation developed by her department and now before Parliament. The Bill has not yet been tabled, despite having been approved by Cabinet in May 2025. According to the Minister, is seeks to provide for the regulation of foreign nationals in the job market, particularly in ‘specific, lower skilled sectors’. A draft verfsion of the Bill was gazetted in February 2022 for public comment. 

The Department of Employment & Labour has finalised and gazetted a White Paper on labour migration, having released a draft version in February 2022 for public comment.

Approved by Cabinet at its most recent meeting for implementation, the White Paper provides a framework for ‘enforc(ing the) proper and orderly movement of … foreign nationals’ in South Africa and their employment here. This is according to a media statement on the meeting, which also notes that the White Paper:

• ‘introduces quotas on the total number of documented foreign nationals with work visas … (to) be employed in major economic sectors’ (citing agriculture, tourism, construction and the hospitality industry as examples)
• ‘complements other interventions’, citing:
  • the list of sectors in which foreign nationals may not be granted business visas, and
  • amendments to the 1996 National Small Enterprise Act preventing foreign nationals from establishing small, medium and micro enterprises or trading ‘in some sectors of the economy’.

This is expected to go some way towards facilitating an appropriate ‘balance’ in the context of job prospects, especially given ‘rising unemployment and the perception that foreign nationals restrict labour market access’.

At the same meeting, an Employment Services Amendment Bill was approved for tabling in Parliament. Among other things, it seeks to give practical effect to the White Paper.

• White Paper
• Cabinet media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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