South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, has denied that his department is causing a skills crisis in the country by failing to process work-permit applications. He said that his department is a “scapegoat” for the failures of businesses.
“I am starting to believe that when businessmen are failing to step up to the pedal and improve the economy, the scapegoat is Home Affairs,” Motsoaledi said in an interview on eNCA television Monday. “We do everything in our power” to help businesses, he said.
However, a report published earlier this year, commissioned by the South African presidency, said that the lengthy delays in processing work visas are hampering growth and deterring investment. It said that a lack of skills is the second-biggest threat to the economy after an energy crisis that sees the imposition of power cuts on an almost daily basis.
The report found that South Africa takes the longest to process work-permit applications, with a wait time of 48 weeks or more. This is compared to 12 weeks in Kenya and 8 weeks in Nigeria.
“A lack of critical skills is holding back the South African economy,” Business Leadership South Africa Chief Executive Officer Busi Mavuso said in a column published by Moneyweb on Monday. “The fact that companies can’t fill the positions means they can’t invest and expand.” BLSA represents the biggest companies operating in the country.
One example of the impact of the delays is AECI, an explosives and chemical maker. The company’s new group chief executive, Holger Riemensperger, a German national, has yet to get all the paperwork from various South African authorities to allow him to apply for a work visa. Riemensperger is running the Johannesburg-based company, which gets more than half of its revenue from its South African base in Germany.
Motsoaledi has said that there is no backlog of critical-skills applications and that his department is working expeditiously to process requests in the pipeline. However, businesses say that the delays are real and that they are having a negative impact on the economy.
Adekunle is a seasoned news writer specializing in political and international diplomacy coverage, with a keen eye for global developments and a track record of delivering accurate and insightful news analysis.