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BL Premium reports that Business Unity SA (Busa) says more clarity is needed on changes proposed in the long-awaited white paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection, published recently.
Cas Coovadia, CEO of Busa which represents almost all big businesses in the country, said the sector has reservations about “certain aspects” of the paper such as the expansion of ministerial powers with respect to permanent residency. “Of key concern for business is that the white paper proposes SA temporarily withdraw from two international treaties on refugee protection [the UN Refugee Convention and the UN Protocol relating to the status of Refugees]. The business sector is preparing substantive positioning on this as the withdrawal of these ratifications will have severe ramifications for SA migration. Secondly, our biggest concern would be the implementation of some of the recommendations in the white paper,” Coovadia indicated. The white paper states that there is an urgent need to “completely overhaul the three pieces of legislation to meet the new challenges facing SA and introduce single legislation dealing with citizenship, immigration and refugee protection”. SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) spokesperson Trevor Shaku welcomed the “synergising of the three laws into one” as it did not make sense to have three pieces of legislation that duplicated or contradicted one another. Cosatu’s spokesperson Matthew Parks said the federation looked forward to engaging the government on these “sensitive and important matters”. He added: “Cosatu is deeply concerned about our 41% unemployment rate and a 60% youth unemployment rate. We must find the right balance. We cannot continue with the status quo. It is a ticking time bomb.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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