By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Department of Employment and Labour has noted with concern that the agricultural and mining sector employers are employing undocumented foreign nationals.
Delivering keynote address at an Employers Session held at the Kuruman Lodge in Kuruman, Deputy Minister Boitumelo Moloi, called on employers to engage the government. .
“There is a misconception that South Africans are lazy, resulting in employers hiring undocumented foreign nationals. This perception is not true. Farm murders are made worse because these undocumented foreign nationals cannot be traced or found as we do not have their details,” Moloi said.
Moloi told the gathering that the department is busy with the National Migration Policy which will assist with the regulation of employment of foreign nationals.
She said, “We need to talk to each other. You must tell us what you want from our learning institutions,” she said.
Moloi warned the employers on the dangers of high level of unemployment among the youth in the country.
She said youth unemployment is a time bomb. “Imagine what will happen if one day, the youth decide to close your workplaces where you employ undocumented foreign nationals. The situation will be terrible,” she said.
The Deputy Minister said that the department has no intention to penalise undocumented foreign nationals, but would like to assist them in complying with the laws of the country.
She requested them to call the department if they in doubt or need assistance.
Moloi encouraged employers to utilise the department’s Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) to register their vacancies and use the system to get employees.
The economists warned that the outlook for the job market remained uncertain as the economy faced significant headwinds from local and global fronts.
Investec economist Lara Hodes said, “that a significant pick up in confidence was imperative to drive sustainable growth and accordingly job creation.”
Energy security has been cited by many commentators as the single most important factor to getting the economy going and creating jobs.
According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 2022 overtook 2021 as the most intensive load shedding year yet, concentrated in the latter half of the year, with December 2022 experiencing the highest load shedding month ever.
Nedbank economist Johannes Khosa said business activities had been affected by the intense load shedding while at the same time higher interest rates and fragile consumer confidence would contain consumer spending.
Khosa said while the government was accelerating efforts to deal with issues at Eskom, it would take years to resolve this challenge completely and push the cost of doing business to remain high.
“Under these circumstances, business confidence will remain depressed, and the private sector will most likely limit investment spending and employment growth,” Khosa said.
“Employment by the government will be limited by the fiscal consolidation path, which, among other key objectives, prioritises the reduction of the wage bill.
Added to this, the number of unemployed and discouraged work seekers who can enter the job market remains high, so even if employment were to increase, the unemployment rate is likely to remain structurally high over the medium term.”
Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old rose to 61%, up from an over two-year low of 59.6% in the previous period.