The updated list of critical skills needed in South Africa right now

Businesstech  - 8  April 2022

 

The opposition Democratic Alliance will submit an advisory note to Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi highlighting deficiencies in the country’s critical skills list and how it can be improved to match South Africa’s current development needs.

The department published its latest critical skills list for South Africa in February 2022 outlining the jobs which are in short supply in the country. While the list has largely been welcomed, the DA said that there are several notable omissions – including medical professionals.

“Not only does South Africa have a skills shortage in the health professions, but the country also is not training enough doctors and nurses to shorten the health inequality gap,” the party said.

“According to statistics from the South African Nursing Council (SANC), the demographic composition of registered nurses and midwives is currently concentrated in old practitioners with less than a third under the age of 40. When these old practitioners retire, 15 years from now, South Africa could find itself sitting in a nursing skills crisis.”

The DA has also raised concerns about a shortage of maths and science teachers in the country.

“While the critical skills list does provide a pathway for foreign teachers within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field, the explanatory schedules for the list are silent on foreign STEM teachers who were already teaching in schools.

“The media is replete with stories of foreign teachers whose contracts were terminated without notice by Provincial Education Departments in the Northern Cape, North West and Limpopo. These provinces always achieve average Matric outcomes every year, and as such, they cannot afford to lose skilled STEM teachers.”

Official list 

The official list, which was last updated in 2014, has been welcomed with open arms by corporations across South Africa who can now rely on the regulations to help lure foreign professionals.

Foreign nationals may now establish whether their profession is in demand in South Africa and may be eligible to commence a career path in the country provided they fulfil the Act’s criteria. If you currently hold a Critical Skills Work Visa and your skill is no longer listed, you may be unable to renew your visa

Some of the most notable jobs which have been added to the list include:

• Director (Enterprise /Organisation) Chief Executive Office, Managing Director- NQF 9;
• Corporate General Manager (medium enterprises or larger) (Master of Business Administration NQF 8;
• Programme or Project Manager (Master’s Degree (NQF 9);
• Quality Systems Manager (Master’s Degree (NQF 9) Quality Control Manager Quality Assurance Systems Auditor;
• Data Scientist Master’s Degree (NQF 9).

A summarised overview of some of the skills in demand can be found in the table below. The complete list can be found in the embedded gazette.

Actuary	External auditor	Nurse educator
Aeronautical engineer	FET phase school teacher (Grades 10-12)	Physicist
Agricultural scientist	Geologist	Policy and planning manager
Architect	ICT System Analyst	Quantity surveyor
Biotechnologist	Industrial engineer	Research and development manager
Chemist	Investment manager	Senior phase school teacher (Grades 8-9)
Chief Information Officer	Mechanical engineer	Software developer
Civil engineer	Metallurgist	Systems engineer
Conservation scientist	Microbiologist	Tax professional
Corporate Treasurer	Mineralogist	Zoologist
Economist	Multimedia designer

 

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From zero to hero: South Africa is hot among overseas investors at conference

Fin24 8 April 2022

 

The Bank of America Securities' annual Sun City Conference had more investors upbeat about SA this year.

 

• There was a much more upbeat sentiment about South Africa among international investors as this year's Bank of America Securities annual Sun City Conference. 
• Some 92 institutions from outside of South Africa attended, and requested more than 500 meetings with local companies.
• High commodity prices and rising interest rates have made SA more attractive as other emerging markets peers fade.

Sustained high commodity prices, rising interest rates and the credit quality of SA banks are convincing international investors to put SA at the top of their emerging markets list again.

This as other emerging market alternatives, like Russia (following the invasion of Ukraine) and Turkey (which is facing a currency and debt crisis) have faded away.

Bank of America (BofA) Securities hosted local and international investors at the annual Sun City Conference at the end of March. Some 78 local corporates attended, and 92 offshore institutions requested 520 meetings with the South African firms.

"It made sense with South Africa being part of the new commodity world order," said John Morris, SA strategist at BofA Securities. "Elevated commodity prices are supportive for South African domestic assets for now," he added.

Morris said investors who came to the conference were looking for areas where there are still opportunities as global growth is slowing down after the buoyant 2021 recovery. And South Africa had a new appeal given the supply constraints created by sanctions against Russia, since it is one of the biggest commodity producers in the world.

He said while SA has its own macro-economic and structural problems, investors were more upbeat about its economic health this year.

Tatonga Rusike, the economist at BofA Sub-Saharan Africa, said investors and economists are "cautiously positive" about SA's near-term outlook. They expect the positive terms of trade, which benefitted from the commodity price boom in 2021, to continue.

"Those high commodity prices are positive for fiscal revenues in the near term," he said, adding that commodity-linked tax collections could surprise on the upside again. Last week, SARS announced collected R1.564 trillion for 2021/22, beating the budget estimate of R1.547 trillion. 

Also last week, credit rating agency Moody's upgraded South Africa's ratings outlook from "negative" to "stable", saying that South Africa's fiscal position has "markedly recovered" from the pandemic thanks to high commodity prices, which boosted tax revenue, and government's fiscal consolidation measures, including that it was able to keep growth in the public sector wage bill to 1.6%, well below inflation.

"Indeed, over the last two fiscal years, the government has shown it was able to re-prioritise its spending while staying committed to fiscal consolidation, which Moody's expects will remain the case going forward."

Resources, telecoms, banks in the spotlight

Because of this upbeat commodity price outlook, investors are falling more in love with precious metals miners. These are the companies that delivered the R182 billion unexpected tax windfall for SA in 2021, allowing the government to fund the R350 grant extension without additional debt and avoid many tax increases this year.

Morris said resources companies present at the conference reported a continuation of strong demand, although they are concerned about a global slow-down as the year progresses.

Offshore investors were particularly interested in resource stocks that recovered slower than their peers in 2020. But all investors are wary of rising input costs in the sector, especially if there is another oil price spike soon.

"For Bank of America buy-rated stocks across the market, we expect returns of over 20% in 12 months. Returns, though, are at risk in the second half of the year," said Morris.

Other sectors that had more investors' attention are telecommunication, technology and financial stocks. The spectrum auction and limited fibre infrastructure in SA have investors convinced that mobile operators are poised for more growth.

The financial sector, particularly banks' credit quality, also performed ahead of investors' expectations in 2021. Investors are also watching how banks will execute their plans to enter new markets as more want to increase exposure in the African continent.

Record portfolio inflows

BofA said portfolio inflows into SA in the past six weeks had been one of the highest since 1994. 

Apart from investors who reviewed their portfolios putting more money into local assets, SA also benefitted from the fact that many companies have upgraded their earnings expectations.

"South Africa has become more attractive relative to other emerging markets either because of unconventional monetary policy in Turkey or the Russia-Ukraine war. We've seen increased inflows for the SA government bonds and equities," said Rusike.

And SA government bonds have become more attractive because of the rising interest rates. Morris said BofA's London team is "constructive" on SA's bonds, and so are many local fund managers.

"The risk is appealing, particularly from a risk-reward point of view. [Even as] the [JSE's] All-share index has been performing well this year, the returns from bonds remain attractive. They are like equities," said Morris.

He said the strong rand has also played a huge role in creating a positive sentiment around SA assets.

The local currency is currently trading around R14.80, from around R16/$ at the start of the year.

When BofA asked investors what they consider to be the key risks in SA, not one person ticked the "volatile rand" box.

Samigration.com

Moody's upgrades South Africa's outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’

Fin24 – 08 April 2022

• The credit rating agency Moody's upgraded its outlook on South Africa from "negative" (which meant the next step could potentially be another downgrade) to "stable".
• While government bonds are still rated as "junk", Moody's says South Africa's fiscal position has "markedly recovered".
• It praised the state's ability to keep growth in the public sector wage bill to below inflation. 

The credit rating agency Moody's upgraded its outlook on South Africa from “negative” to “stable”.

Moody’s previously rated South Africa at Ba2 (two rungs below investment grade), with a negative outlook – which means the next step could potentially be another downgrade.

It is keeping South Africa at Ba2, but changed its outlook to “stable”, saying that South Africa's fiscal position has “markedly recovered” from the pandemic thanks to high commodity prices, which boosted tax revenue, and government's fiscal consolidation measures, including that it was able to keep growth in the public sector wage bill to 1.6%, well below inflation.

“Indeed, over the last two fiscal years, the government has shown it was able to re-prioritise its spending while staying committed to fiscal consolidation, which Moody's expects will remain the case going forwards.”

In 2020, Moody’s stripped South Africa of its investment grade rating, downgrading government bonds to "junk". A "junk" rating means there's a bigger chance that the government won’t be able to pay back its debts.

"This marks an improvement compared to Moody's previous projections of a long period of ever-rising debt-to-GDP."

Government has managed to cut its primary deficit (the difference between its income and spending, excluding interest payments) to 1.3% of GDP over the past year, compared to Moody’s forecast of 3.4%.

Moody’s also expects that tax compliance is likely to improve gradually as the South African Revenue Agency (SARS) rebuilds some of its institutional capacity, and highlighted South Africa's “sound” financial sector, as well as strong exports thanks to commodity prices.

In addition, it noted that the Reserve Bank's foreign-exchange reserves fully covered annual external debt payments. “The central bank has a long-standing policy of refraining from intervening to prevent depreciation, thereby preserving buffers.”

But it warned that the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) remain weak and poses risks to government’s debt burden. In addition, a “malfunctioning” labour market could fuel “social risk” and Moody’s is also concerned about the impact of load shedding on the economy.

“Moody's expects these constraints to remain and forecasts GDP growth at only about 1.5% in the medium term.

“Very weak SOEs across a number of sectors, including electricity and transport, both contribute to weak growth and are affected by it, without any prospects of significant improvements in the foreseeable future.”

Still, it said that South Africa’s ratings could be upgraded if it showed significant progress towards alleviating these structural constraints on growth. "Firm signs that the rehabilitation of the energy sector is underway would also be a key marker, pointing to higher growth and lower contingent liability risks from the SOEs sector."

Ratings could be downgraded if growth prospects and government’s fiscal strength deteriorated.

In a statement, National Treasury welcomed Moody’s upgrade to South Africa’s outlook.

It said that government is using a part of its additional tax income (a windfall due to the high commodity prices) to pay off more debt, while most of it will go towards urgent social needs, including job creation through the presidential employment initiative, and supporting the public health sector.

“Faster implementation of economic and SOC [state-owned corporation] reforms, accompanied by fiscal consolidation to provide a stable foundation for growth, will ease investor concerns, and support a faster recovery and higher levels of economic growth,” Treasury said.

www.samigration.com

Shambolic Home Affairs leaves legal immigrants undocumented

GroundUp 8 Apr 2022

 

 

Since lockdown asylum seekers and refugees have been denied crucial services

 

Immigrants are struggling to document their status because of the continued closure of in-person services at Home Affairs refugee reception offices. Image: Tariro Washinyira

• Refugees and asylum seekers are facing a myriad of problems because Home Affairs has not provided crucial in-person services for two years.
• Despite a blanket extension of permits various government departments and private sector facilities are not accepting valid documents, not even some Home Affairs officers.
• There are numerous complaints of problems with the Home Affairs online system introduced for permit renewals.

Terrence is a Zimbabwean refugee in South Africa. He has tried seven times to renew his status through the Home Affairs online portal, but he has never received a response, he says.

His papers expired in October 2020, but Home Affairs announced that asylum seeker and refugee permits that expired after 15 March 2020 have been extended up to and including 30 April 2022. This was because Home Affairs had closed its refugee reception offices since lockdown.

Terrence wants to officially marry his customary law wife. So he went in person to the Regional Home Affairs office in central Johannesburg, only to be told by a supervisor to bring “a valid document” because his asylum document had expired.

He was told the blank extension is only to allow refugees to renew. “So I have to wait for the renewed status and then get married”.

But this is incorrect as the blanket extension clearly extends “the validity” of visas and permits.

“I do not understand how a Home Affairs office does not understand its own system … My wife is getting tired of waiting, not knowing if we will get married,” said Terrence.

He also said not having renewed documents in hand was affecting his employment contract and his child’s schooling.

Home Affairs launched its online renewal system for asylum seekers and refugees, but since its inception last year GroundUp has received emails and calls from asylum seekers experiencing difficulties with the portal.

With the closure of in-person services at Refugee Reception Offices it has also not been possible for many refugees and asylum seekers to legalise or document their status, even though they have entered the country perfectly legally.

Also, people who have lost their documents, because of anything from carelessness to robbery to fire, have no way currently to verify their status.

An Ethiopian refugee, Abera, says he cannot renew online since he lost his refugee document and he cannot remember his reference number.

Another distraught refugee told GroundUp that his bank insisted his refugee status be verified. “The documents are given by the South African government … Do banks verify South Africans green IDs as well? This segregation needs to stop.”

The “family joining” process – granting refugee status or a similar secure status to family members accompanying a recognised refugee – has also ground to a halt.

Children who have been born in South Africa to refugees are sitting without birth certificates, because their mothers are undocumented.

Sharon Ekambaram of Lawyers For Human Rights (LHR) also confirmed that refugees have been reporting a breakdown of Home Affairs systems. She said the failure by Home Affairs to issue a directive that the “document provided to asylum seekers that has the Covid watermark is a legitimate document, shows the contempt” Home Affairs has for poor people.

Acting National Director of the Somali Association of South Africa Abdikadir Mohamed said the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) Pretoria local office was refusing to recognise refugee documents renewed online.

“Sassa officials punched holes in the documents that were renewed online to ensure they are not used again. They also threatened to arrest the refugees,” said Mohamed.

Sassa’s spokesperson Paseka Cornelius Letsatsi failed to respond to our questions.

We have also repeatedly sent questions to Home Affairs but received no reply.

www.samigration.com

 

Immigration officer who tried to buy 5,000 permits gets 15 years in jail

By TIMESLIVE - 07

April 2022

 

An immigration officer and an Ethiopian who tried to set up a huge illegal-permit operation were each sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
Image: belchonock/123rf.com

An immigration officer who paid R150,000 to get 5,000 blank permits for fraudulent use by foreign nationals has been sentenced to 15 years in jail, the home affairs department said on Wednesday.

The immigration officer, Nasi Seqola, was nabbed alongside an Ethiopian national who was working with her. The Ethiopian, Biru Yosef Alem, was in possession of a permanent residence permit at the time of his arrest. This has since been revoked.

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Wednesday applauded the arrest of Alem and Seqola, saying their arrests put the brakes on what would have been a huge crime.

Explaining how the two were caught, the department said Seqola tried to recruit an official from Government Printing Works (GPW) to print 5,000 blank permits in return for R150 000.

The official, however, reported Seqola to the counter-corruption branch which set up a sting operation.

“The 5,000 permits were printed by GPW and handed over to law-enforcement officers. The permits were used in a sting and Ms Seqola paid the R150,000. Then the law-enforcement officers moved in and took the cash and the permits. The permits were returned to GPW. This avoided what could have been a catastrophe in terms of permitting,” the department said.

Explaining how the plot would have worked, the department said Alem would have recruited foreigners who did not qualify for South Africans permits; bring them to Seqola who would have completed a fraudulent permit and then used her corrupt contacts at home affairs to insert such a permit into the data base.

Seqola and Alem were convicted in October 2021 but were sentenced on Monday.

Motsoaledi said he believed the sentence suited the crime.

“This sentence reflects the severity of the crime. People who do not respect the country’s immigration laws must face the full might of the law,” said Motsoaledi. “We congratulate the patriotic GPW official who resisted huge amounts of money and remained honest to his job and his country.”  

Alem will be deported once he has served his time.

www.samigration.com