Latest news with #LorenLandau
TimesLIVE
17-07-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Concern over US 'dumping' dangerous criminals in Eswatini
Immigration expert Prof Loren Landau of Wits University agreed with Phage that South Africa should be concerned. 'On moral and practical grounds, South Africa should be unsettled by this move. It is a further effort to make Africa a source of raw materials, cheap labour and 'waste processing' for the US,' he said. 'While it may have little effect on South Africa in the short term, it also further allies Eswatini with the increasingly authoritarian US president. This will have implications for democracy, human rights, and the region's solidarity.' Sowetan approached the department of international relations & co-operation to enquire if South Africa is concerned about the possibility of some of these individuals entering the country. 'Our state authorities such as the Border Management Authority have embarked on significant reforms to safeguard our borders and citizens,' said spokesperson Chrispin Phiri. On Thursday the Swaziland Solidarity Network released a statement condemning the US decision to 'dump' the five men in their country. 'According to the US department of homeland security, these are convicted murderers, rapists and gang members and they must be removed so that 'they can never hurt another American victim'. By implication, this means they must now hurt Swazis,' said spokesperson Mfanafuthi Tsela. 'This is a deliberate act of collusion by two corrupt governments to dump America's most violent criminals in one of the world's poorest nations.'
Daily Maverick
19-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
SA's new labour migration policy — critics doubt its effectiveness, say it does not strike a balance
In a new policy white paper, the government makes several far-reaching proposals to restrict the employment of foreign citizens. Critics warn that instead of protecting jobs, the policy will do damage. South Africa has finally put forward a coherent plan to manage labour migration. The White Paper on National Labour Migrant Policy, which the Cabinet approved on 29 May, marks the government's first comprehensive attempt to define who gets to work here, and under what conditions they will be allowed to do so. It arrives as the unemployment rate remained stubbornly high at 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025. In this climate, political pressure to prioritise South African jobs has grown, as evidenced by rising xenophobia and misinformation about migrant numbers, the white paper states. Immigrants made up 8.9% of employed workers in 2022, largely in sectors where local participation is low, such as construction, agriculture, logistics and informal trade. The proposed policy is trying to prioritise South African workers while acknowledging regional and sectoral reliance on foreign labour. Whether it succeeds is another matter. 'What might create South African jobs in the short term may ultimately harm the country's ability to recruit skilled workers, attract investment and promote trade,' said Professor Loren Landau, a migration researcher based at Oxford University and the University of the Witwatersrand. The policy is designed to inform proposed amendments to the Employment Services Act (ESA), with the aim of imposing stricter control on how foreign nationals are hired in South Africa. The crux of the reform is sector-specific quotas that will cap the number of foreign nationals employers can hire in certain industries and occupations once the amendments have been passed by Parliament. 'Internationally, the practice of reserving the right of occupational choice is not uncommon in democracies,' said Sashin Naidoo, employment law lawyer at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. Employers will also need to prove that no suitably qualified South African was available for the job, submit a skills transfer plan and pay foreign and local workers on par. The ESA did not set out the practical requirements for these skills transfer plans, said Taryn York, senior associate employment lawyer at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. 'However, it does say the minister may make regulations setting out these requirements.' Failure to comply could result in fines of up to R100,000, a prospect that has employers on edge. 'Although a drive to increase employment of local workers is admirable, the task of skills transfer and upskilling of employees should not also be placed at the feet of the private sector,' said Jaco Swart, national manager of the National Employers' Association of South Africa. The proposed changes will introduce more uncertainty for migrant workers. Mandla Masuku, president of the Migrant Workers Union of South Africa (Miwusa), said most migrants were not in the country by choice but because of unforeseen circumstances in their home countries. 'Some have been here for many years,' Masuku said. 'They've got families, they've got properties. If they are going to be affected by these policies, it is not going to affect them alone.' He also raised concerns that migrants might not fully grasp how the policy would be enforced or what their rights would be under a new system. When quotas clash A legal showdown may be brewing between the Employment Equity Act and the ESA. Although recent proposed amendments to the former included sectoral transformation targets, the ESA's amendments go a step further, granting the minister of labour the authority to impose hard quotas on the hiring of foreign nationals. 'We've got these two pieces of legislation, one having a quota and one having a sector target,' said Imraan Mahomed, director of employment law at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. 'There is already existing authority in the Constitutional Court that has found that the imposition of quotas is unconstitutional. 'The minister distances himself from any consideration that sectoral targets are quotas. It's not going to be a sectoral target in relation to foreigners, it's going to be a quota. I suspect there's going to be a legal challenge when it comes to these quotas.' The policy is presented as a dual-purpose tool: to promote local employment and safeguard migrant rights. As with most of the government's ambitions, the execution is where reality starts to wobble. 'The government has typically based its policies on a relatively poor reading of the true economy or the impact of immigration on it,' Landau said. 'While dramatically underestimating the positive impacts of immigration, it dramatically overpromises on its capacity to regulate labour conditions and migration.' Masuku, too, was sceptical of the policy's effectiveness. 'I suspect that it will be just another policy that is there, maybe for the purpose of proving a point to citizens. But, in terms of practicality, I don't think it will have a huge impact.' Swart echoed these doubts: 'The issue is not that employers are unwilling to appoint South African citizens, it is simply that the skills are not locally available, a consequence of a failed education system. 'The current proposal does not strike a balance, nor will it assist the unemployment crisis or ensure a skills transfer in the country.' A regional vision One of the policy's more progressive features is its regional outlook. It aligns with AU and Southern African Development Community frameworks and proposes the introduction of SADC visas, which are intended to ease cross-border work and allow for portable social protections. Lee Masuku, senior associate lawyer in employment law at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, said these would include a special work visa in the SADC region, special traders' visas and SADC small and medium enterprise visas. The policy also calls for updated labour agreements with neighbouring states like Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique, but Landau views these gestures as superficial. 'The existing policies may or may not reshape the labour market, but they do send a clear message to the region that South Africa is now more unilateral than ever. Given how much of its market is regional… this will likely hurt business and job creation,' he said. The policy also largely ignores where most migrant workers actually operate: in the informal sector, undocumented and unprotected. Asked whether the policy protected informal migrant workers, Landau answered: 'Simply put, no.' He added that it lacked mechanisms that recognise or protect the humanity and labour rights of migrant workers outside formal employment. Masuku warned further that employers might exploit undocumented migrants more if fewer legal work routes existed. For all its talk of order and oversight, the white paper admits that the policy is based on sparse and outdated data, and promises a better information system. The scattering of administrative data, the policy's lack of alignment to international standards, missing indicators and minimal use of both administrative and statistical data by policymakers are some of the key challenges the white paper identifies. 'A more robust reading of the regional economy which includes informal trade, fast fashion, small and unregistered business development in and through South Africa might suggest that national employment and regional obligations are complementary, not at odds,' Landau said. York gave a warning to employers operating in the agriculture, hospitality, tourism and construction sectors, saying they should prepare for the introduction of quotas on hiring foreign nationals. According to Masuku, Miwusa has a close relationship with the labour union federation Cosatu and consulted with it to better understand the policy. 'We must work together to ensure that workers, regardless of their nationality, are not [negatively] affected by these kinds of policies,' he said. DM This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
Al Jazeera
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Afrikaners landing in US with refugee status is 'deeply offensive'
Loren Landau, a professor at Oxford University, explains the message the US Trump administration is trying to send to the world by granting some white South Africans refugee status. The first group of 49 people is set to land in Texas on May 12.
The Citizen
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
Afrikaners who accepted Trump refugee offer 'know there's no persecution in SA'
At least 40 Afrikaners granted refugee status by President Donald Trump departed OR Tambo International Airport for the United States on Sunday night. A group of Afrikaners gathered outside the American Embassy in Pretoria to deliver a memorandum to US President Donald Trump. Picture: Nigel Sibanda /The Citizen A Wits University professor said Afrikaners who have accepted US President Donald Trump's resettlement programme are aware that there's no persecution of white people in the country, but are taking advantage of the opportunity to go to America. At least 40 Afrikaners granted refugee status by Trump departed OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Sunday on a private charter flight for the United States. The group of 49, including young children, appeared to be in a jovial mood, while others were reserved as they waited for their turn to check in their baggage. The Afrikaners did not want to answer questions from the media. Causing an 'issue' Wits University's Professor Loren Landau says the white Afrikaners leaving their home country to be refugees in the US will cause an 'issue between South Africa and the US. 'South Africa and the United States have many conversations to be had, around trade, tourism, and other kinds of things. The G20 that's coming up later this year will be an issue. This will make it more difficult to negotiate in good faith,' Landau told Newzroom Afrika on Sunday 'But this is part of Donald Trump's game plan of putting his opponents, which is the rest of the world, on the back foot, and I think South Africa shouldn't take the bait. South Africa knows what it's doing. It has its issues, of course, but it needs to come into these negotiations strong. We do need the assistance from PEPFAR, from other programs, for our HIV programs, but South Africa needs to negotiate, not from a position of weakness.' WATCH Professor Loren Landau speaking about Afrikaners leaving SA Wits University's Professor Loren Landau says white Afrikaners who have accepted U.S. President Donald Trump's resettlement programme are aware that there's no persecution of white people in the country, but are taking advantage of the opportunity to go to America. Watch:… — Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) May 11, 2025 ALSO READ: Resettlement of Afrikaners in US as refugees 'entirely politically motivated' Dirco says Fleeing SA 'absurd' Landau said there are people who think fleeing South Africa is 'absurd'. 'I think what people think about this is that it's absurd. People in South Africa think it's ridiculous, and even many of the Afrikaners we've heard in interviews, they know they're not being persecuted, but they accept that this is an opportunity to go to the US, to have their children educated there, etc, and they're grabbing that opportunity. 'There are those white South Africans, of course, who believe that they're being persecuted, and they're entitled to that belief, however fictitious it might be, but this is not a war that in this day and age we can win. Misinformation is the norm,' Landau said. In February, Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie said he and AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel agreed that there is no white genocide in South Africa. 'Mission SA' On Friday, the International Relations Department (Dirco) said the resettlement of white South Africans or Afrikaners in the United States under the guise of being 'refugees' was 'entirely politically motivated'. ALSO READ: First SA white Afrikaner refugees set to arrive in US next week Trump set up a programme in March called 'Mission South Africa' offering an expedited pathway to US citizenship for white South Africans, falsely claiming that the government was confiscating their land and calling their treatment in the country 'terrible'. 'Politically motivated' Dirco spokesperson Chrispin Phiri reiterated that allegations of discrimination against Afrikaners were 'unfounded'. 'It is most regrettable that it appears that the resettlement of South Africans to the United States under the guise of being 'refugees' is entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa's constitutional democracy,' Phiri said. 'A country which has, in fact, suffered true persecution under apartheid rule and has worked tirelessly to prevent such levels of discrimination from ever occurring again, including through the entrenchment of rights in our Constitution, which is enforced vigorously through our judicial system. 'In addition, it is not clear how the principle of non-refoulement will be applied in relation to these citizens once they are resettled.' Phiri said South Africa would not block white South Africans or Afrikaners who wanted to leave the country. NOW READ: WATCH: AfriForum went to Washington to gossip about SA – Mufamadi
