Cape Town - The Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) has slapped 38 employers with fines amounting to R68 000 for hiring illegal foreign nationals without valid work permits in contravention of immigration laws.

In a parliamentary reply, Minister Nomakhosazana Meth said her department conducts blitz inspections in collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs and the police.

Meth said her department’s mandate was to enforce the implementation of labour laws to ensure the protection of workers, while the Department of Home Affairs scrutinised the validity of visas and work permits through the application of immigration laws.

Meth said during the blitz, 68 employers and 322 foreign nationals were found on the wrong side of the law across the nine provinces.

“With respect to the 68 employers arrested, each employer paid an admission of guilt fine to the amount of R10 000.

“Therefore, the total amount paid in lieu of fines is R680 000 while the 322 employees were taken for further processing as per immigration requirements,” she said.

Meth’s response showed the Eastern Cape led the pack with 34 employers that flouted the laws and were fined a collective R340 000, followed by Mpumalanga with 15, Limpopo eight, KwaZulu-Natal five, and two in the Western Cape.

She also said of the 322 foreign employees that were arrested, the largest number, 163, were from Limpopo.

The Western Cape came second with foreign nationals at 43, Eastern Cape and Gauteng at 34 each, Mpumalanga 30, KwaZulu-Natal 16, and Free State two.

In a separate response to another set of questions, Meth said her department received 6 255 work permit applications between April 2023 and March last year.

The Department of Home Affairs makes final decisions or waive any recommendation made by any of these three departments after following their final internal processes or after consulting further with other departments such as those in the security cluster.

She added that 60 corporate applications were received by her department.

A total of 872 work visas for migrant workers were recommended.

The applications were mainly from foreign nations from Zimbabwe with 445, Lesotho with 250, Mozambique 86, and Namibia 70.

The applications were for mining, agriculture, and education and training.

Cape Argus

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Blitz inspections lead to fines for employers hiring illegal workers