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Tata International Frustrated Over South African Visa Delays: Report

Source: Press Trust of India, 14/09/2015

Johannesburg: Tata group firm Tata International is becoming
increasingly frustrated by delays of up to six months to secure visas
for its employees assigned to South Africa from where it operates in
14 other African nations, the company's chairman Noel Tata has said.

"It is increasingly time consuming to get visas for business," Mr Tata
told the weekly City Press.

"We believe that, as a supervisory business, we ought to be granted a
faster, quicker employment of visas to get into South Africa. We had
to post people to Tanzania because it is easier to get visas and work
permits there then in South Africa," said Mr Tata.

The company manages various subsidiary businesses in the group,
including a vehicle assembly plant near Pretoria.

About 50 staff members at its head office in Johannesburg manage all
its African operations, which contribute $373 million to Tata
International's overall business, which it hopes to double within the
next five years.

Mr Tata said that while he understood that a significant portion of
the company's employees at its head office had to be South Africans,
it still needed to recruit critical managers, such as strategic
planning and financial control officers, from outside the country as well.

Reacting to a question about whether the visa irritation could lead to
Tata International rethinking its decision to base its African
operations in Johannesburg, Tata told the weekly that this was not a
consideration at the moment.

He said his company would talk to South African government about its
frustrations.

Mr Tata's comments came in the wake of concerns expressed by a number
of chief executives of Indian firms with a presence in South Africa at
a recent seminar between the India Business Forum and the Premier of
the province of Gauteng, which is the economic hub of South Africa.

The company heads expressed concerns about delays in bringing in staff
from India, which Premier David Makhura undertook to raise with his
government.

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