12 Aug 2021

The Immigrants Selection Board is guided by Section 23 (5) of the Immigration Act to issue work permits.

This, Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Mpho Balopi told Parliament Wednesday in response to questions asked by Sefhare-Ramokgonami MP, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang.

Mr Balopi said the board also issued permits to non-citizens in a case where suitable skills were not readily available in the labour market.

He added that consistent with the requirement, work permits were issued subject to, among other things, evidence that an employer had made an effort to recruit and give preference to Batswana candidates.

He said the board’s decision on work permit applications was also based on a Point- Based System (PBS) which was a flexible, comprehensive and objective way of assessing an application.

Furthermore, he stated that it was also a requirement that employers trained locals in order to facilitate localisation of non-citizen-held positions.

Mr Balopi explained that the search for skills in the labour market was often rendered difficult by the lack of database on skills that were available in the country.

“We are hoping to overcome this problem once the Labour Market Information System which is being established by Human Resource Development Council in collaboration with my Ministry is finalised in 2022,” he stated.

Furthermore, he stated that although technical and vocational institutions produced graduates with skills that were relevant to non-citizens held occupations, their availability in the labour market cannot be guaranteed as some of the trainees in the programmes were sent for training by individual companies.

He further informed Parliament that unemployed Batswana with relevant qualifications were not readily available due to non-availability of reliable labour market database.

He also indicated that number foreigners issued work permits at Kwena Concrete Products were currently two who were employed as overhead crane technician and welding and fabrication technician.

He said Steelbase Company had two divisions, with one dealing in steel production and transportation services and the other in farming, adding the steel production and transportation division employed 223 citizens and 29 non-citizens who worked as among others, auto mechanics, finance manager, technical roofing and sheet metal foreman.

On the other hand, he said the farming division employed 37 citizens and five non-citizens who worked as farm managers.

Mr Balopi said Dynamic Road Services Company provided cross border transport services, warehousing and clearing agents and had a total of 32 employees out of which 29 were citizens and three non-citizens who worked as managing director, director and operations manager.

The EL&L Company that provides cross border transport services has 19 citizen employees and three non-citizens who worked as extra heavy duty drivers.

Dr Gobotswang had asked the minister to state the number of foreigners issued work permits at Kwena Concrete, Steelbase, Dynamic Road Services and EL&L companies.

He wanted to know the nature of jobs that they were employed to perform and how many Batswana with the relevant qualifications were unemployed to perform the required tasks.

Dr Gobotswang also wanted to know why the ministry was issuing work permits for jobs that Batswana were qualified for. ENDS