Letter from the CEO: March/April 2024

Introduction

With the election heating up, and preparation for a new financial year, the South African Minister of Home Affairs surprised us with a rushed publication of amendments to the immigration regulations and an even quicker withdrawal of the same regulations!

A new White Paper was also published with some questionable immigration suggestions. This has been quite a busy 2 months for the DHA, considering the general election just around the corner – a topic I’ll go into further detail on in this letter.

Further up the African continent, Kenya added another nail into their foreign investment attractiveness coffin.

Company Insight

Our March was filled with our annual and quarterly planning, scorecards, and kicking off our rocks. There is a real good vibe in the team. After some rather severe staff disappointments and management oversights last year, our most recent hires seem to be working out.

The gees (Afrikaans for great vibe or spirit) is lekker, you can feel the buzz in the office each day. The team is clicking and pushing; it is so nice to see after years of mentorship, explanation, and constant communication on what working in an A-team feels like. I am proud of this achievement and the team.

This year, we’ve set ourselves ambitious targets, and are aiming to prepare a change of role for me at the end of this year. This has resulted in more management responsibilities for the core leadership team; a task they seem up to.

We will focus our marketing efforts this year on increasing the interest of US citizens in Africa, continuing to push our Out of Africa offerings, improving our bonds with our corporate clients, and most importantly, looking in detail at how we can deliver our services even better to our corporate and private clients. I am excited that our hard work will pay off, and we will have a great year (not difficult after the put-me-into-burnout past year).

Departmental Disasters

The past 6 weeks were not just busy for IBN, but also for the Minister of Home Affairs. I am not sure if the ANC is already internally calculating a loss in the general elections at the end of May, and therefore want to push out legislation before they may be put on hold.

The immigration industry was rather surprised by the publishing of the final 2nd amendment of the Immigration Regulations on the 28th of March, one day before the public comment period closed. I was not so surprised that not one of my suggestions was implemented, but I was surprised that no, none, nada, nix, suggestions of anybody was implemented. You can see my comments on this here .

You can’t really say it clearer – the DHA does not care for process or public feedback. Zinhle Tyikwe, CEO of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa , shared my frustration over the lack of clarity regarding new skilled work visa regulations, saying, “it reinforces our sense of a government that doesn’t want to consult. It shows us that the consultation process is just a tick box exercise” in the Sunday Times’ latest edition .

Thanks to pressure from the press first, and then NEDLAC, the Minister withdrew these immigration amendments, that included the introduction of a Remote Worker Visa , a scorecard for General Work Visa and other changes . This takes us right back to square one. To be fair, I do think they will re-publish the final version very soon. I just hope they add some justified feedback on the remote work.

The Minister also published the final White Paper On Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection – important for refugees and policy, not so important for immigration. You can watch my breakdown of it here .

TES Opens for Round Two

The Department of Home Affairs has mentioned that the Trusted Employer Scheme will be re-opening applications for corporations interested from the end of May 2024.

The Trusted Employer Scheme offered companies that were accepted expedited visa processing times, efficiency in appeals and waivers, simplified visa processing, the elimination of certain visa requirements, and more. When it was first announced, I gave the DHA the praise it most definitely deserved, but wanted to see if it worked in practice.

The DHA seems confident that the first round was successful, and I think this is a fantastic idea. Many companies either missed the deadline for the first round of applications, didn’t qualify yet, or wanted to see how the first round performed compared to promises made by the DHA. I look forward to assisting corporations interested in submitting their applications.

Election Analysis

We’ve seen a lot of election commentary over the past month, but I believe come the end of May, we will see the ANC drop under 50% and team up with one or two small parties to continue governing the country. It would be first prize for democracy if the official coalition of opposing parties, the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa (DA, IFP, FF Plus, ACDP, and more), would win.

The Multi-Party Charter

It is never good for any democratic system to be governed by one party for such a long time, not to mention a totally incompetent and corrupt party. However, I am not sure if the election of the MPC would lead to an improved governance of the country. South Africa has no real history of political coalitions; making compromises is hard, to hold back on your own interest for the greater good of the country or larger systems is not engraved in our local DNA. We are an individualistic society with open, great spaces.

An ANC Collaboration?

If the ANC falls under 45% support, then it must team up with one of the larger opposition parties and that could be the DA or the EFF, however unlikely it may sound. I truly hope that DA is prepared to make real compromises for the greater good of our country and not just talk about change.

Frequently, the DA holds itself back with its rhetoric of South Africa being “non-racial”, almost ignoring the very obvious elephant in the room that race is still a serious concern in South Africa. The DA will continue to alienate voters if it keeps seeming to only serve the upper-middle class.

I wonder if they will have the courage and sisu (a Finnish term meaning strength of will, determination, perseverance) to make it work with the ANC or if they will chicken out of their responsibility and continue in their convenient role of mediocre opposition party.

Prepare for a Coalition

Coalition governments are a new concept to the residents of South Africa, having been ruled by the NP for years, and then the ANC. However, I implore citizens to realise that this is the future of South Africa’s political system, and that coalitions can work. Now is a better time than any to get the public (and politicians) used to coalitions and working together to better this nation.

To be clear, the whole country wants to live in the DA-governed Western Cape (and quite a few foreigners as well, might I add), because things work here, and we see growth. However, I seriously wonder about their willingness and ability to truly compromise (100 years of ruling the country does not disappear overnight). Never a dull moment in Africa.

Kenya’s Closing Doors

In November last year, the Kenyan government announced higher fees for immigration and citizen services, leading to considerable public response. The Interior Cabinet Secretary subsequently cancelled the original fees to reflect public feedback, but the new fees have now been implemented .

This is a serious disappointment for Kenya – you often wonder if the Kenyan government is just trying to make immigration far more inaccessible to all with these large fee hikes, paired with their online visa portal (eFNS) being broken more often than working.

Conclusion

This past period has been a rollercoaster across the board: Great immigration changes pulled overnight by the DHA, and questionable immigration comments made in the White Paper were offset by the reopening of TES, and continued speed of adjudication of Critical Skills Visas.

Our focus, however, remains straight ahead, with our goal to continue to provide expert assistance and guidance across the African continent, to private clients and corporate alike.