NEASA SUBMITS COMMENTS

NEASA has rejected the Employment Services Amendment Bill (ESA Bill). The proposed law aims to regulate the employment of foreign nationals in South Africa, thereby imposing an enormous, onerous administrative and compliance burden on businesses.

To read NEASA’s full comments on the ESA Bill, click here. 

Published on 18 September 2026 for public comment, this Bill proposes to empower the Minister of Employment and Labour to set sector-, occupation-, or region-specific employment quotas for foreign nationals that employers have to meet. It also introduces pre-employment compliance steps before businesses can hire foreign nationals, mandating the creation of skills transfer plans and increasing fines to up to R1 million or 10% of annual turnover for non-compliance.

In its attempt to minimise and control labour migration to an extreme extent, the government intends to actively overregulate the free workings of business. NEASA has rejected this Bill because of the negative impact its prescriptive state measures will have on many businesses and their appetite to employ.

The exorbitant, disproportionate, punitive measures proposed by the Bill could also be financially disastrous for businesses. Business does not exist to jump through administrative and regulatory hoops imposed by Government for illogical political motivations; it exists to generate revenue, employ people, and contribute to the economy in the best way it can. These proposed measures of this Bill stand in stark contrast with the principles and values of a free-market dispensation.

An employer must be free to hire the best person, and no quota system should limit this. If a foreign national is better equipped and the employer prefers that specific candidate, the employer should be free to employ that person, regardless of their nationality.

NEASA argues that the failure of the education system in cultivating skills remains a major contributor to the unemployment crisis in this country. Poor economic policies, ineffective governance and enforcement, and widespread corruption and incompetence in the public service remain the main cause of the country’s poverty and unemployment. It is not caused by immigrants, legal or otherwise.   

NEASA therefore rejects the ESA Bill in its entirety and recommends its immediate withdrawal.