Letter from the CEO: January/February 2024

Baby Steps and Giant Leaps

It is the middle of February when I write this article; the year is six weeks old and so far, has started better than the past 12 months. In this month’s edition, I want to talk about baby steps and one giant leap: the introduction of the South African Remote Work Visa (known also as a Digital Nomad Visa) as well as details on the Trusted Employer Scheme .

Improving the Business

To address our staff shortages in the Cape Town branch we have hired two new promising staff members, and in our Johannesburg branch we have replaced one consultant and strengthened the team with an additional hire.

We are on track to achieve our financial and company goals which we planned in March 2023, and have addressed nearly all client concerns originating from the middle of last year.

SONA and DHA Announcements

Even the Department of Home Affairs has started 2024 off with the bang. On the day of the 2024 State of the Nation Address , the Minister of Home Affairs complied and published draft regulations which contained, among other things, the mentioning of the Remote Worker Visa .

Our president first mentioned the desire to introduce this 2 years ago in his 2022 SONA speech. It does beg the question as to why this official announcement only happened on the day of SONA; I wonder if this was intentional and slightly defying by the Minister?

I will be spending my home office day writing comments on these draft regulations and submitting feedback to the Department of Home Affairs.

Exploring the Draft Regulations

In essence, several long overdue legislative amendments have been incorporated in the draft regulations, but some questions still remain regarding the Remote Worker Visa , as well as the introduced point-based work system not being defined at all.

We will share these comments on our blog, as well as in the next newsletter. We have already made comments on the regulations, which you can find here .

Any regular readers of my letters will remember that I suggested the introduction of a Remote Work Visa in early 2020, and I have constantly reminded various access points of the authorities that it would be a good idea.

So, with some satisfaction, I have to say that several baby steps sometimes lead us to our destination. At this stage it is not clear when we will see the final version of the Immigration Regulation amendments, but my guess would be either late April or early May, or not at all, depending on the outcome of our general elections in May this year…

Trusted Employer Scheme

A significant change overlooked by the general public is the introduction of the Trusted Employer Scheme . In November, when companies were supposed to register for this newly proposed scheme, it was not clear what the advantages would be.

We now know that companies who have successfully registered for the Trusted Employer Scheme have been granted some very serious competitive advantages and will be able to attract foreign talent more easily, faster, and more cost efficiently than those not accepted.

The abolishment of the SAQA requirement, no longer requiring a Critical Skills confirmation letter, the removal of the recommendation letter of the Department of Labour, as well as commitment from the Department to faster processing marks a dramatic step toward making South Africa much more competitive to foreign talent.

To be clear: TES registered employers will have a world class immigration regime to attract foreign talent. The waiting time for foreign employees will be determined by the processing time of the South African missions and, according to the MOU, even the South African missions must process within 20 days such applications.

This means that foreign employees can probably start within four weeks after signing a letter of employment compared to current standard of four to six months.

Initially, I was very surprised that our press in South Africa had not written more positively about this. While reading my Sunday paper, it dawned on me that it is an election year, and that maybe any positive news regarding the current administration may not fit into the agenda of the journalists of the publications that I and other businesspeople read.

The next step will be for all large corporations who have not registered with TES to lobby for the reopening of registration. Business associations, foreign chambers, local chambers, and other business orientated bodies should potentially start making their voices heard by the government.

According to the information publicly shared by the Department, only 65 corporates have successfully registered with TES. For more details and a technical breakdown of the scheme, you can read more here .

Strength to Strength

The good news does not stop here! Some of our clients, as well as myself, have been invited to participate in a survey regarding legislative changes, specifically regarding the introduction of a Startup Visa and possible changes to the current Business Visa . I shared the news around a possible introduction of a Startup visa months ago; now it seems it will become a reality very soon.

Struggles in Kenya

The Kenyan eFNS portal is back online but facing stability issues, with intermittent functionality affecting users. Currently, online applications are possible, but there’s a major problem with uploading documents due to server capacity issues.

Sadly, this has become a norm for Kenya’s visa portal, with the site being down more than it’s up. It often leads to widespread complaints and even leaves people stranded in the country.

With the government’s poor maintenance of these visa systems, one must wonder if the commitment of grow Kenyan tourism and attract foreign talent is even there?

Conclusion

I do think that businesses in South Africa have been too quiet in the past and should speak up – make your voice heard and repeat the core messages constantly. We see that positive government change is possible, but we can never afford to slow down our efforts in improving the competitiveness and success of South Africa.