SA Migration Newsletter 02 / 2009

1.1 About SA Migration International

SA Migration International was created out of the need for a specialist organization to assist people wishing to volunteer, work, bring family, study or open businesses in South Africa.

Visitors to South Africa soon realized that the country had a lifestyle and standard of living they struggled to find any where else in the world. Many of them decide to stay in the country and this is where SA Migration International comes in.

SA Migration International will guide you through the entire process to require the appropriate permit and make sure that all is in order for your application. Once we confirm that you will qualify for the visa, we will guarantee you a successful application. This is normally done in the first consultation - which is for free.

1.2 Our Mission

Our mission is to process permits in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of hassles to the applicant. SA Migration International wants to make it easy for the applicant to come to South Africa without the hassles of applying for permits, standing in queues and ultimately dealing with SA Home Affairs, Department, Department of Labour, Department of Trade and Industry and SAQA.

5 March 2009 by Nicol Degli Innocenti

The severe skills shortage and the relative good health of South Africa’s financial system are presenting new opportunities for foreign workers.

Those willing to leave the doom and gloom of the City or Wall Street for sunny Johannesburg or Cape Town will find a warm welcome and a good job, employment experts say.

“There are plenty of jobs available here and financial services is a particularly interesting and skills-deprived sector,” says Rod Maxwell of SA Migration International. “Unfortunately there is little awareness abroad, even among employment consultants, of how easy it is to find a job here.”

The days of South Africa pushing for ‘black economic empowerment’ at all costs, in an understandable effort to redress the inequities of the apartheid past, are long gone.

The “South Africans first” policy remains, but it has become more flexible and, above all, more realistic. Government has admitted that it needs foreign skills if it is to meet its growth objectives.

Home Affairs emphasises that “recruiting foreigners in certain key areas is one of the key elements of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative, a comprehensive government plan to ensure the continuation of South Africa’s economic growth.”

Now more than ever, with a massive infrastructure- building programme underway and the crucial 2010 football World Cup looming on the horizon, South Africa wants to shed its image of a ‘fortress’ built to keep foreigners out.

One system designed as an answer to the skills shortage is the Quota Work Permit, which enables a qualified person to obtain a work permit first and a job later, as long as employment is found within three months.

The permit is open-ended and remains valid for as long as the person is employed. The quota is reviewed and published once a year. In 2008 it applied to 35,000 people, but this year expectations are that it will be significantly higher.

“In fact the department of Labour is always trying to limit the number of foreign workers, the minister of Trade and Industry is always trying to push for more permits for foreigners and Home Affairs is caught in the middle. But there is a growing recognition of the huge skills shortages, so an increase of the quota is both likely and welcome.”

10. May 2009 by Phumza Macanda

South Africa's Trevor Manuel is to be appointed head of a new economic planning body with Pravin Gordhan to be his successor as finance minister, a source close to the administration said on Sunday. Gallo/Getty Images
President Jacob Zuma is expected to announce the cabinet appointments at 1200 GMT.

Gordhan was head of the country's tax authority and his appointment would point to policy continuity in Africa's biggest economy, where investors want Manuel to keep a strong role in shaping policy.

Zuma faces pressure to appoint effective ministers who can deliver on his ruling ANC's promises to tackle widespread poverty, crime and AIDS, and create jobs.

He said in his inauguration speech on Saturday the country should acknowledge it faces tough economic times and will not be spared the impact of the global credit crunch. Stacking his cabinet with loyalists could undermine the credibility of Zuma, who has told ANC officials they should not expect jobs just because they supported him.

Zuma won a wide mandate in the ruling African National Congress' (ANC) April 22 landslide election victory. His toughest task may be balancing the interests of unions and communists who helped him rise to the top against those of investors who fear he will steer the economy to the left.

Manuel has won respect from business for keeping tight controls on spending.

The African Development Bank ensures funding for the continents infrastructure investments
The African Development Bank (ADB) will attempt to counteract the negative effect of the global financial crisis on African economies, the bank’s president Donald Kaburuka, said on the weekend.

In an interview with Business Day, Kaburuka said the programmes visualised by the bank include the initiation of a $1,2bn (R11bn) emergency liquidity facility. This service will provide capital for the African financial sector, whose access to foreign capital has either dried up or become too expensive to use.

The bank is also planning on using $2bn (R19.9bn) of its own funds for trade, liquidity and project funds.

With a risk capital utilisation rate of about 50% and total risk capital of about $7bn, the bank had a “huge capacity” to respond to the crisis, Kaburuka said.

Kaburuka said it was difficult to estimate how much would be needed as it was impossible to predict how the global economy would react to the stimulus packages.

The bank would also become active in project finance to fill the gap left by risk-averse foreign banks.

Kaburuka met South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and the finance ministers and central bank governors of a number of African countries to discuss the effect of the crisis on the continent.

Kaburuka said normally the ADB focused on project finance for infrastructure; however the current financial crisis threatened to undermine the expansion African economies had experienced over the last two decades.

“What we are seeing already is the cancellation of infrastructure projects because of the lack of financing. International banks are opting out and we are trying to be countercyclical by providing project finance to ensure that those projects go ahead. We are also seeing trade financing facilities drying up or becoming very costly,” Kaburuka told Business Day.

Kaburuka cited a 5.1% growth rate in gross domestic product was forecast for 2009 in sub-Saharan Africa last year, this was now expected to fall because of low oil and mineral prices. Kaburuka predicted that growth could be closer to 4.5% this year.

13 January 2009 by Bruce Gorton

The economic crisis is here, and along with it, stories about how highly qualified people can’t find work. For example, an unemployed physicist in South Korea who was turned down for a job as a street-sweeper.

South Africa has always had something of a skills shortage, a need for people with valuable skills and knowledge. Well, if nothing else, the crisis is presenting us with a chance to attract such people from all over the world.

When the crisis was in its genesis, we had a lack of skills leading to our water being poisoned, cholera spreading throughout South Africa and Eskom needing to boost its green power generation while reducing the pollution from its coal-powered plants.

With global companies slashing jobs, some of them here in South Africa, such valuable skills are now available.
The crisis doesn’t have to be something that breaks countries such as ours — it can be something we use to our advantage.

We could do with a lot of the people out there who can’t find jobs as street-sweepers elsewhere.

8. The Palace of the Lost City

Legend has it that an ancient civilisation from North Africa journeyed South to build a palace for their much-loved King. They stopped in long-extinguished volcano crater – a veritable cradle of life. A place where weird and wonderful creatures, both great and small, roamed free amidst glittering streams and dreamy waterfalls.

Here, they built a magnificent palace to befit the surroundings; their King was well-pleased. And so, the palace served as the spiritual centre of their vast empire until an earthquake reduced it to ruins.

Now, restored in form and rejuvenated in spirit, The Palace of the Lost City is a modern day marvel that will make your journey, legendary.
The Palace of the Lost City is part of The Leading Hotels of the World. The Leading Hotels of the World brand is internationally recognized as the definitive mark of excellence in hospitality.

http://www.suninternational.com/Destinations/Hotels/Palace