Malusi Gigaba: Hire At Least 60% South Africans
Cape Town – All businesses, not just those in the hospitality or construction sectors, were required to have a workforce of at least 60 percent South African citizens in their employ, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has clarified.
Gigaba said his department was preparing for a “mass inspection” of businesses countrywide, to ensure they complied.
“This has nothing to do with xenophobia, in fact xenophobic violence is what we want to prevent,” Gigaba said in an interview with the Cape Argus. “We must prioritise the employment of South Africans, and businesses across the board have to comply.”
Gigaba added: “The risk of not employing South Africans is that it endangers the lives of foreigners and the property of companies. If you look at the [xenophobic] violence that erupted in 2015, it started precisely because of a company at Isiphingo in Durban that employed non-South Africans, and South Africans attacked the company.”
He said the regulation was not new, but had been tightened to flush out companies that were flouting the law.
“What happened was that we changed a regulation, which in the past said that only a minimum of five South Africans needed to be employed by a company for it to obtain work visas.
