Visa delays cause huge problems for SA businesses

DELAYS in the issuing of visas to skilled professionals, who want to live and work in the country to fill the skills gap, are causing a huge problem for businesses and is impacting negatively on economic growth and investment.

This is according to Melanie Veness, chairperson of the Association of South African Chambers (ASAC), who said the massive backlog in the issuance of visas was creating an untenable situation for businesses that were reliant on the services of skilled foreign professionals.

“These are people who are needed to fill the gaps on the critical skills list. We’re losing those professionals to other countries, because they simply cannot wait for extended and unreasonable periods to get a visa or a spousal visa,” she said.

In response to a Parliamentary question in November about the processing of backlogged visas by DA MP Adrian Roos, who sits on the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the processing backlog of visas and permits as at 31 August 2023 was 74 309 and 43 944 respectively.

Another committee member, IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe, said the backlog persisted and would have increased since the committee’s last meeting at the end of last year.

Veness said companies were hamstrung by this unacceptable administrative failure and were unable to adequately compete as a result. This undoubtedly negatively impacted economic growth and current and future investment.

Inward investment was stifled as firms wishing to introduce new innovative business models from other countries could not bring their management teams across, with the relevant experience, to transfer this know-how, she said.

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) CEO Cas Coovadia said Busa was very concerned about the ongoing delays in the processing and securing of visas through the Home Affairs Department.

“This bottleneck, with significant backlogs, particularly relating to scarce skills needed for sectors of our economy, are a further inhibitor to economic growth and erodes confidence in SA,” he said.

Coovadia said Busa had raised this issue with the Presidency and would continue to work with them to address the matter.

Chairperson of the board and head of African Futures and Innovation at the Institute for Security Studies, Jakkie Cilliers, said bringing skilled foreigners into the country was hugely important for growth and development. “It’s a real source of concern and the situation just seems to be getting worse and I think that it’s hugely important that the government try and get on top of this,” said Cilliers.