Dear Portfolio Committee on Labour,

I have emailed the Minister of Labour on a very serious matter, which I believe, should be brought to the attention of the Portfolio Committee.

I have attempted to attach the letter, but this site does not have such a function. Letter can be viewed at www.labour.gov.za

Hon Thulas Nxesi
The Minister of Labour
Republic of South Africa

CC:
Portfolio Committee on Labour;
Presidency-Republic of South Africa


Dear Minister

Request for clarification of contents of Dept of Labour Notice on www.labour.gov.za website

The attached notice/letter appears on the Dept of Labour website (www.labour.gov.za) .This week, one of our staff members was told by a DOL official that they would remove our Power of Attorney and other documentation from the application for a General Work Visa application.

A few observations:

DOL has Statutory obligations in term of the Immigration Act, which does not include approving visas. For General work visas and Corporate permits, DOL’s role is to provide letters of approval/disapproval for aspects of the applications which are then submitted to Home Affairs for adjudication. The normal engagement with DOL is through applicants and their representatives (practitioners, lawyers, advocates, employers, etc).

The second paragraph of the letter refers to Sect 23 of the Immigration Act of 2011 –this section in the Immigration Act refers to Asylum Permits.

Clarification:

While the gist of the letter relates to a different process for engagement with DOL, it is clear that this letter is problematic in that it misquotes legislation and that it excludes legally mandated parties from exercising representative mandates. Many of these representatives promote investment into South Africa, as well as job creation in the country. This unconstitutional approach will also result in SA Citizens losing jobs, as this source of professional services income, will be lost to them.

We seek a withdrawal of this letter and arrangement within 14 days, failing which we will seek legal redress through the courts.

Yours faithfully

Leon Isaacson
MD: Global Migration Group
Immigration Practitioner (SA)
www.globalimsa.com
021-419-0934