Linda Ensor
12 November 2009
Cape Town — The Department of Home Affairs is to undertake a comprehensive review of the permit system to make it easier for foreign investors to live and work in SA.
SA has a skills shortage, and business has called for the rules to be relaxed to attract more skilled migrants to SA.
Home affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang said yesterday discussions would be held with labour, business and other departments to develop a policy on economic migrants. He said after briefing Parliament's public service and administration committee that the department wanted to look at the duration of the permits for foreign investors, who would not be interested in investing here if the period of their stay was limited, for example, to two years.
Another aim of the review would be to minimise fraud.
"The intention is to ensure that the issuance of work permits is not restrictive to government's long- term objective of promoting economic development," he said.
Msimang said that the system of drawing up lists of scarce skills that got priority treatment in terms of work permits would not change, but it should be improved.
More access should be given to companies that needed to acquire these skills.
Local government director- general Elroy Africa told the committee a draft strategy for revenue enhancement and debt collection had been completed to assist municipalities collect the R54bn owed them by businesses, households and the government.
The department believed the initiative, to be launched next month, would go a long way in placing municipalities on a stable footing. Communities would be mobilised around the slogan "you use, you pay".
Public service and administration director-general Richard Levin said government also needed to expedite its payment to creditors. There was almost 80% noncompliance by national and provincial departments with the requirement that debts be settled within 30 days.
The government wanted to procure from small businesses, but they could not survive if payments were delayed.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
