By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng says increasing numbers of illegal immigrants, high unemployment, and a high crime rate remain a concern for the party.
During an ANC Gauteng press briefing last week, ANC provincial chair Panyaza Lesufi and provincial secretary TK Nciza said it is time for local South Africans to be prioritised by private businesses and proposed a quota on the employment of locals.
Nciza essentially blamed foreigners and the private sector for the high employment numbers in South Africa.
“Everybody sits and looks to the government for employment. South Africans revolt against the government when there are no jobs without seeing, in reality, that it is the private sector that is not coming to the party,” said Nciza.
“We are now calling on private businesses to start prioritising South Africans, and let’s agree on a quota. We [South Africa] must have a quota, and we’ll start in Gauteng; it’s time,” he added.
According to Nciza, restaurants only employed foreigners and left out South Africans, who were unemployed. “You go to these restaurants. You hardly come across a South African,” he maintained.
He further said it was their responsibility as the ruling party to continue to fight for the public in terms of employment and other leading factors.
Sharon Ekambaram, head of the refugee and migrants rights programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, meanwhile said that targeting foreigners was an effort to use as a scapegoat for failures of governance.
Ekambaram said there is simply no data to suggest that the hiring of foreigners has any effect on the unemployment of South Africans. “They do not have this data, and instead, they blame foreign nationals for every failure, even in the provision of health care,” she said.
Although this negative sentiment towards hiring foreign nationals has surfaced in Gauteng government, Institute for Security Studies founder Dr Jakkie Cilliers believes this is already a national issue – which is hurting further job creation, investment, and knowledge transfer in the economy.
Cilliers said that government is blocking the tremendous potential that skilled foreign professionals can bring to South Africa through its punitive approach to immigration.
“We have a situation where Home Affairs and Labour are actively working against the Presidency, or the Presidency is not working with them to solve this issue.
This has resulted in South Africa taking a punitive approach to immigration. “We literally do our best to make it as difficult as possible to enter South Africa,” Cilliers said.