Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber revealed the information in a recent parliamentary Q&A, where he noted that the department exhausted “all efforts” to determine that no South African citizens or permanent residents had the necessary skills and qualifications to fill the positions before issuing the visas to foreign nationals.
“This was done in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training. The methodology used to determine the critical skills is detailed in a Technical Report on Critical Skills published on the website DHET,” he said.
Out of the 4,913 visas issued since 1 January 2020, 1,794 were issued to Zimbabwean nationals for hundreds of different jobs.
The biggest job category for which Zimbabwean nationals were issued a critical skills visa was trainee auditors, followed by integrated development, software developers, nursing, and ICT systems analysts.
After Zimbabwe, the second biggest import country for critical skills in South Africa is India, where 918 visas have been issued.
The table below outlines the top 20 countries that have been issued critical skills visas to South Africa:
# Country Visas
1 Zimbabwe 1,794
2 India 918
3 The Democratic Republic of Congo 295
4 Nigeria 286
5 Cameroon 90
6 Germany 85
7 China 84
8 The United Kingdom 82
9 Kenya 75
9 The USA 75
11 Lesotho 63
12 France 62
13 Pakistan 58
14 Zambia 50
15 Swaziland 48
16 Angola 45
17 Uganda 41
18 The Netherlands 39
19 Ghana 36
20 Botswana 35
Critical skills
South Africa’s critical skills list was updated for the first time since 2014 in February 2022, sparking controversy in the medical field at the time as most of the jobs cut from the list came from that sector.
In response to this, the list was updated again in August 2022, where 39 more occupations—largely from the medical field—were added to the list.
The last time the list was updated was in October 2023, when vets were added to the growing number of scarce skills in the country—however, general practitioners and doctors remain off the list.
You can view South Africa’s full Critical Skills List here.
The department previously acknowledged that there has been “fierce criticism” of the critical skills list, mainly emanating from the professions that were cut.
It said that the Critical Skills List ought to be updated every four years due to the ever-changing skills shortage in South Africa.
In lieu of more regular updated to the critical skills list, the department is engaging in other ways to make it easier for the country to draw in the skills it needs.
The department is forging ahead with the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES), which should help businesses acquire international workers to address their skill shortages.
The country has also moved to implement a remote working visa, which should draw additional skills into the country.
International workers are seen as a short- and medium-term solution to the current skills shortage that many corporations in South Africa face, with skilled workers – especially those with STEM and IT skills – often heading in the other direction.
South Africa’s battle with skills is happening on all fronts.
Within the country itself, there is a dearth of skills that match the growing needs of businesses—and the skills that are present are either snapped up by companies, head for the exit due to various ‘push’ factors, or are working remotely for international companies.
Other countries outside of South Africa are also looking for skills, and local talent is ripe for the picking.
Countries like Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK have all pointed to dire shortages of skills in certain fields and expressed a willingness to draw these skills to their shores—and for South African talent with itchy feet, the prospects are often too inviting to ignore.
South
Africa’s plan to attract more professionals to its skills-starved
economy through the introduction of a so-called nomad visa for remote
workers has been slowed by the need to amend tax regulations.
The
impediment comes after an initial delay when changes to the visa regime
had to be temporarily withdrawn because mandatory public consultation
procedures hadn’t been followed. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his
intention to introduce a remote-working visa in his 2022
state-of-the-nation address.
“There is just a tax-related matter
that needs to be addressed in the regulations,” Leon Schreiber, the
country’s Home Affairs Minister, said in a response to queries. “Once
that is done, the department will commence with the rollout.”
South
Africa’s byzantine work permit regime, which means that securing a work
permit can take well over a year, has been flagged as a hurdle to
economic growth by both the presidency and the country’s main business
organisations.
Still, a backlog of more than 300 000
applications for all kinds of residence permits has been halved since a
new cabinet was announced on June 30 after the formation of a coalition
government.
The home affairs ministry initially proposed allowing
people employed and paid by companies elsewhere to live in the country
for as long as six months a year without paying tax, as long as they
earned at least R1 million annually.
The short answer
It's complicated, but there are things you could try
The whole question
I have a couple of questions regarding getting South African citizenship, here is my back story on my life:
I
was brought into South Africa by my mother when I was 10 years old from
Zimbabwe in the year 2000/2001 and I am turning 27 this year, so I have
been residing in South Africa for my teen and adult life, when we
arrived in South Africa my mother applied for refuge-ship and she was
granted in 2005/2006 and as kids we have been under her file for all my
South African live hood, whenever we would go to Home Affairs to renew
our refugee papers we where given either 2 years or 4 years permit, she
applied for permanent residence and we never heard from Home Affairs
regarding the issue, when my mothers parents passed away in 2010 she
traveled back to Zimbabwe to bury them as she is the only child. Home
affairs found out about this and they charged her and made her pay a
fine for that but now they are giving us 6 months refugee permits.
My questions are:
1 - Is it possible that we as her kids are getting punished for what she did back in 2010?
2-
Home Affairs said they would open different files for us when we turn
18 years old but nothing has been done yet will this affect me getting
my citizenship?
3- How can I apply for citizenship with the history I have never left South Africa from the age of 10 years old?
4- Do I need to seek legal help for me to start the process of applying for citizenship as an individual?
The long answer
Thank
you for your email asking about applying for citizenship as the
27-year-old child of a registered refugee who has never left South
Africa since arriving with your mother at the age of 10.
To answer
your first question as to whether Home Affairs is punishing you by only
issuing permits for six months at a time instead of the two to four
years they used to give: it may be that they are punishing your mother
for returning to Zimbabwe to bury her parents in 2010, for which she was
fined
