South Africa has spent years asking whether a particular foreigner deserves a work visa. Home Affairs has decided to ask a different question: whether the company doing the hiring deserves to be trusted. Phase two of the Trusted Employer Scheme, published in the Government Gazette on 20 July, pre-vets the employer instead of the paperwork, and companies that pass send their skilled foreign hires through with fewer supporting documents and less delay.
What a company has to prove
The vetting is a scorecard, and there are three of them. South African corporates take the first, companies running or planning a regional or global head office here take the second, and financial firms get a new third route. All three need 80 points out of 100. Choose more than one pathway and you risk disqualification.
For a local corporate the points sit in four buckets: proven investment 30, employment 25, economic sector 25, skills development 20. Money talks loudest. A company that has sunk less than R100 million of fixed capital investment, meaning plant and property rather than running costs, into South Africa since 2018 scores nothing on that line at all; R100 million to R200 million earns 20 points, and above R200 million earns the full 30. The employment points need at least 100 staff, 60% of them South African citizens or permanent residents. The head-office route pulls a different lever: more than R500 million in company income tax and employee payroll tax paid to SARS across the last two tax years.
The third route is the most curious. Treasury wants local asset managers to run their global investments from South Africa rather than from Ireland, Mauritius or Guernsey, where they went for lower taxes and looser currency rules. The new scorecard gives those firms a way to recruit the specialists that shift requires. Applications run online, and the department intends to fold the scheme into its new digital travel authorisation platform, which verifies identity and eligibility electronically before anyone boards a plane.
Where labour draws the line
Cosatu did not oppose the scheme. Spokesperson Zanele Sabela said companies that establish headquarters in South Africa will boost economic growth and create jobs, then set the federation's condition: it is crucial that the scheme is not abused and used to bypass employing and training South African workers. Skills transfer must be insisted upon, she said, and employers found abusing the scheme must be removed from it and heavily penalised.
Applications close on 4 September, and a panel drawn from Home Affairs, Employment and Labour and the trade department issues outcomes within 30 working days of that. Approved companies are expected to sign an agreement with the department, and the panel's decision is final. Schreiber's argument is that Home Affairs now works as an economic enabler rather than a constraint. Which companies make the list, and how fast their hires actually arrive, is where that claim gets tested.
