N Mapisa-Nqakula: Black Management Forum meeting

18 July 2006

Programme Director
Friends

I am quite happy that we have been invited to be part of this branch meeting
of the Black Management Forum (BMF) here in Johannesburg. I am also
particularly appreciative of yet another opportunity to engage with an
important stakeholder such as our managers, who in the main are placed in the
private sector. This is because during the recent past we have been grappling
with the issues relating to matters of how our work as a department can help
support economic objectives of the country.

I will therefore invite you to use this opportunity to raise some of the
issues that you believe we should be paying attention to in this regard and we
shall in turn engage with you on some of the broad policy considerations we are
making to fulfil our obligations in the areas of the economy.

I must start by saying from the onset that we believe that the country has
serious capacity needs that should be addressed to support economic growth. We
believe that government can play a certain role in terms of facilitating or
creating an enabling policy environment in this regard. It is however our view
that this task of building such a capacity cannot be limited to this role of
government, but should extend to the rest of the sectors as well, of which the
private sector is key.

My input to you, therefore, is aimed at outlining how the Department of Home
Affairs contributes to this mainly facilitative role of government, but also to
invite BMF to share with us your views on how you can support similar
objectives.

Attraction of Foreign Skills to Support our economic objectives

For government, legislation is one of the key instruments through which we
facilitate the attraction of skills for our economy. In our case the
Immigration Act of 2002 plays an important role in this regard.

As you might be aware, we took a decision in 2004 to amend this Act
specifically so that we can make it less cumbersome to facilitate the entry of
skilled personnel from outside the country.

I must hastily mention that, all policy considerations that we have made
with regard to the attraction of foreign skills have always been sensitive to
the employment needs of South African citizens first. We must however
appreciate the fact that a developing democracy such as ours might not have all
the critical skills we require and that there might be a need to attract
foreign skills in a regulated manner.

The Immigration Act now provides for a whole range of permits that can be
used by potential employees to come into South Africa for purposes of work.
These include a general work permit, a (skills) quota work permit, an intra
company transfer work permit, treaty permits, as well as corporate permits.

Some of these permits have been designed to make it easier to recruit a
certain level of skills and competency in a flexible manner and they are used
with the necessary discretion that rests with government.

The normal way through which you can work in South Africa is through a
general work permit, which amongst other things requires that companies must
satisfy that no South African citizen could do the job before a foreigner can
be appointed to that job.

Foreigners with critical or exceptional skills that our economy requires are
allowed a greater degree of flexibility to work here through quota work
permits. Multi national companies may also appoint some of their skilled
managers from overseas on skills transfer arrangements for a limited period.
This period which was initially limited to two years will now be increased to
five years in respect of intra company transfer work permits.

It is important that we should emphasise this skills transfer requirement in
respect of the multi national companies that invest in this country. This is
because the overall long term objectives with regard to skills in South Africa,
is to create a self sustainable economy. This self sustainability should not
only be limited to financial resources, but should also include sustainability
in terms of institutional and human resource capacity.

While we recognise that we might not have all the skills required to support
our economy yet, we do need to ensure that any attraction of skills into this
country should be closely tied with the issue of transfer of skills to South
Africans and our Human Resource Development Strategy as a whole. This is mainly
because our initiatives for the Reconstruction and development of our country
should seek to redress past imbalances.

The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA)

Programme Director

One of the key objectives of government’s Programme of Action in the second
decade of our freedom is to fight the scourge of poverty amongst our people. We
have also recognised that in order to do this we need for our economy to grow
at more accelerated rate than it is doing now. Hence our flagship AsgiSA
programme that outlines how in practical terms this accelerated growth will be
achieved. The target points for such growth are also clearly defined in this
programme, including the need for our economy to grow at a rate six percent per
annum or more if we are to meet our objectives by the year 2014. It was not a
mistake therefore that AsgiSA has as one of its key tenants the issue of skills
acquisition.

Of course it is also necessary for everybody to understand that skills
acquisition is not only limited to attraction of foreign skills, but
incorporates other skills development initiatives taking place here at
home.

I am raising this because I am aware that as an organization that mainly
represents a sector from formerly disadvantaged communities, the Black
Management Forum (BMF) should be interested in contributing to such initiatives
as the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

One of the current discussions that we are having at JIPSA has to do with
the need to determine, in a scientific manner, the extent of skills scarcity in
the country. Once these have been determined, I will be able as Minister of
Home Affairs to publish a new list of scares skills for quota work permits in
terms of which foreigners can come into the country to seek employment.

Capacity at the Department of Home Affairs

The Department of Home Affairs plays an important role in supporting growth
initiators such as skills acquisition, tourism and cross border trade by small
and micro traders.

It is important therefore that the department should have the necessary
capacity in terms of systems, organizational design, human resource and
leadership to play this role in a manner that is efficient.

We have therefore been working in the past two years to put this capacity in
place and to transform the department in such a way that it will be able to
fulfil its mandate and obligations to the country. It has specifically been my
view since I took over the reigns as Minister of Home Affairs that the
department was not adequately capacitated to fulfil its mandate. This situation
posed serious challenges for us in the beginning and I happy that we are now
addressing them.

I also believe that government as a whole needs to appreciate some of these
capacity issues in relation to the department and that we should have a
comprehensive approach in addressing them. It is for this reason that I have
invited both the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), as
well as the National Treasury to assist us in doing this work.

I have in the main requested that these two departments should conduct an
audit of our operational systems and assist the department in addressing
identified short comings.

I have specifically asked the DPSA to look at the need to professionalise
the organisational establishment of the Department of Home Affairs and to
streamline its monitoring and quality assurance tools. One of the immediate
areas of focus will be the occupational categories and levels of officials in
our National Immigration Branch.

Having said this, I must indicate however that this support and assistance
from the two departments should not be seen in isolation, but as part of our
initial plan developed for the departments turn around Strategy.

In that regard, we are also working hard to put in place some of the
technological solutions that will make it possible for us to serve our clients
better. These will include the much needed technological support for our
officials in foreign missions whose jobs it is to issue different permits for
foreigners who want to come to South Africa for a variety of reasons.

The department is also fully engaged with the process and structures that
are preparing for the country to host the international sport events to be held
by Football International Federation Association (FIFA) during 2009 and 2010.
We are satisfied that most of the interventions we have put in place will
assist the department to be ready to receive the large numbers of people
visiting our country during this period.

Programme Director

We continue to realign our policy framework to ensure that it responds
correctly to the many competing challenges inherent in our responsibilities. We
believe that interactions such this one is important in initiating national
debate and consensus on key issues involved in the development of such a policy
framework.

It is for this reason that I have not planned a long presentation, but to
allow for a session of engagement with you and to respond to some of the issues
that you will like to rise with us.

Allow me once again to thank you for this invitation

Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
18 July 2006
Source: Department of Home Affairs (http://www.home-affairs.gov.za)