The South African government has tabled a labour migration policy that will introduce employment quotas for foreign workers and ban foreigners from starting small businesses in some sectors.
The National Labour Migration Policy and Employment Services Amendment Bill, which was introduced by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi on Monday for public comment, seeks to limit the total number of documented foreigners who can be employed per sector.
Nxesi said the decision to introduce the proposed policy was necessitated by the fact that employers were taking advantage of the desperation of undocumented foreign nationals and preferring them at the expense of locals.
This has led to violent clashes between locals and foreign nationals from fellow African countries, with the former accusing the foreigners of taking their jobs.
The public has until the end of May to comment on the policy, after which a revised document will be referred back to cabinet for onward transmission to parliament.
The proposed new policy is accompanied by amendments to the Small Business Act, which will ring-fence some economic sectors where foreign nationals will be barred from establishing small and medium-sized enterprises and trading.
JN/APA