The Rand is enjoying a fantastic rally and is now frequently dipping below 13.00 to the US Dollar. With Euro and Pound weakness thrown into the mix, it’s clear that this is a good time to be offshoring some of your Rands. Good times, unfortunately, rarely last very long. However, while that sun shines we must make as much hay as possible. Below are three ways you can make smart use of the strong Rand.
On 22 February, a letter was issued by a governing school in Edenvale, informing parents that if any foreign child who has incomplete documentation will be escorted by the police and the parents should fetch them at the police station. This had led to major outrage among all foreign families living in South Africa.
The Department of Home Affairs immediately took to social media addressing the situation stating that the instruction did not come from Home Affairs and that the letter must be ignored and apologised for any ‘hurt’ that may have been caused.
The Department of Basic Education has been urged by Human Rights Lawyers, to issue a Directive instructing all schools to refrain from discriminating against foreign- and even undocumented children by refusing- or charging higher fees to them. They are further requesting that the Directive should also state that the schools will assist the foreign children with obtaining the necessary documents.
The rights of children within South Africa clearly states –
The salary cap for The Department of Home Affairs and the Parliament had been requested to be reconsidered, but is still set out to remain in play until 2019.
Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan emphasized in his ‘2017 Budget Estimate Expenditure’ that, regardless of the R34 million for the Immigration Affairs programme and R51 million for the advanced processing system, the department will need to be satisfied with the ‘compensation ceiling’.
Cape Town – All businesses – not just those in the hospitality or construction sectors – were required to prioritise the hiring of South African citizens and 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.”
On 18 October 2016, the Department of Home Affairs launched a new and integrated contact centre to ensure that enquiries and complaints are dealt with efficiently and effectively.
Prior to the new system being implemented, there were a lot of public concerns on how queries were being managed and with many complaints of the telephone lines not being answered. The new system aims to improve the following items as identified –
The Department of Home Affairs’ new contact centre will be operated by highly skilled officials and consultants with the necessary knowledge. The Contact Centre will enable the people of the public to lodge their complaints at a central point. All cases will be registered on a central case management system. The Department also endeavours that there will be consistent feedback as all the customer related services will be offered centrally at one branch.
It should be noted that the Department of Home Affairs are in the process of loading additional components of the National Population Register to enable maximum access to information of all the Home Affairs services. The National Identification System, The National Immigration System and the Movement Control System will be integrated within the upcoming months.
The Department of Home Affairs are set on measuring the complaints and compliments to improve the services that are being rendered to the public of South Africa.
You may contact the Contact Centre on 0800 60 11 90 or email hacc@dha.gov.za for any enquiries/complaints or compliments.
Blanket concession for international students affected by the current student protests.
For access to the download, please click here.
From 1 October 2016 applicants are no longer required to go to the South African Police Station in order to obtain a South African Police Clearance Certificates. The process of obtaining a South African Police Clearance Certificate will be automated, the VFS office will run background checks of the applicants by use of their biometrics against the SAPS database (a fee of R175 will be charged). Once the electronic South African Police Clearance Certificate has been received, the VFS will combine the visa application along with the certificate and transfer the completed application to the DHA electronically.
Click here for a copy of the DHA Directive
The Department of Home Affairs will host an inaugural naturalization in honour of foreign nationals residing in South Africa. In this ceremony applicants who have been permanent South African residence holders for a period of 10 years will be formally awarded certificates, while they will be expected to take an oath affirming their allegiance to the Republic of South Africa. The function will take place in the East Rand later Wednesday.
During the Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba’s, visit to Kenya in May this year, plans were made to ease travel between South Africa and Kenya. The discussions were sparked when Kenya’s Amina Mohammed, Cabinet Secretary of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, stated that the applications for clearance to travel, which were to be submitted by Kenyans travelling to South Africa, was a “violation of bilateral the agreement between the countries”. In summary of the discussions the following revelations were made –
I’m in the ICT sector and need to hire a Foreign Employee from Mozambique. Do you have an idea on what I should do?
When hiring a foreign national a number of items need to be taken into consideration. The first item to note is to make your offer of employment subject to the obtaining of the necessary work or residency permits.
In this regard, where the candidate is required to enter the country urgently to start working as soon as possible, it is recommended they first apply for a Visitor Visa under Section 11(2) of the Immigration Act of 2002, as amended, which allows the candidate to work for a period of up to three months, and this visa takes 5 – 10 days maximum to obtain. These temporary work permits are obtained hassle-free and is far more preferable that running the risk of being caught as illegally working, arrest for breach of immigration rules etc.
Once done, the candidate may enter the country and start working and you need to start looking at the process of applying for the longer term work visa. The Critical Skills Work Visa is favourable for candidates in the ICT sector and we recommend considering this category first and foremost. We strongly advise against the “General” Work visa category because of the involvement of the Department of Labour which is still at this stage lengthy and often unsuccessful. The candidate will be required to return to Mozambique to apply for the visa and may take 30 days to complete.
In terms of remuneration, the candidate must be paid by South Africa and as such will be subject to South African taxes and in accordance with the double tax agreement between South Africa and Mozambique.
Whilst the employee’s remuneration is subject to tax, there are a number of special planning items that can be considered for expatriate employees, these include tax free accommodation for the first two years and up to R25 000 per month, time outside South Africa is exempt and a log book of travel should be kept to calculate this, one month relocation allowance is exempt, and where he has not worked for the complete year in South Africa a portion of his taxes may be refunded and can be claimed back from SARS on personal tax assessment.
Other items to consider include –
There are specialised providers in the market and we can refer you to them, if needed.
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