Dear Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour,
I am writing to you to express my concern on the stance taken by the government and business society to overlook South Africans when it comes to employment opportunities. As the country with the highest unemployment rate in the world it makes no sense to bring in foreign labour. Majority of the foreigners employed in the Republic are not on scarce but are economic migrants and the scarce skills list has jobs which South Africans can do but are being overlooked. An example was when I participated in a factory inspection in Newcastle KZN and out of the 248 employees on site only 20 were South Africans and only 10 of the 228 foreigners had valid documents to be in the country. You can not expect to grow the economy if you exclude your citizens from employment opportunities because they are the ones who spend their money in the country while foreigners repatriate their money to their home countries. It is important to note that South Africa is not the USA and is a 2nd world country. We shouldn't be applying 1st world country policies when we can't even take care of our own citizens.

Best regards
Thabiso Dube