COPY AND PASTE THIS TEMPLATE Citizen Submission: Employment Services Amendment Bill [B16-2026] Submission details To Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour, attention Mr Zolani Sakasa Email [email protected] Deadline Friday, 6 November 2026, 16:00 From [Full name], South African citizen Town or area [Where you live] Contact [Phone] · [Email] Oral presentation I wish to make an oral presentation at the public hearings. [Yes / No] Summary of position I support the Bill’s aim of putting South African work seekers first, and its framework of quotas, labour-market testing and fines. I object to Clause 1(d), which amends the definition of “foreign national” in section 1 to exclude refugees and asylum seekers. That change would take refugees and asylum seekers outside the whole of the new Chapter 3A. Employers would not need to check whether a South African is available before hiring them, prepare a skills transfer plan, or count them against a quota. For South Africans looking for work, this would weaken the very protections the Bill is meant to create. I ask the Committee to: keep the current definition of “foreign national”; write into the Act a clear rule that South African citizens are considered first for employment; and retain and enforce the Bill’s protections for local work seekers. Who I am I am a South African citizen who has been both employed and unemployed. I make this submission in my personal capacity, as an ordinary work seeker, and not on behalf of any business or organisation. I know first-hand what it means to look for work in this country, and what a single income means to a household. My experience of employment and unemployment Periods without work. [Optional - How long you were unemployed, and how many times. What kind of work you were looking for, and your qualifications or experience at the time.] Looking for work. [Optional - How you searched: job boards, labour centres, the Department’s ESSA system, walking in to businesses, word of mouth. Roughly how many applications you made, and how many led to interviews.] What it cost my household. [Optional - Who depends on your income. What your family went without, and how you got by: grants, family support, piece jobs, debt.] Getting work. [Optional - How you found work in the end. What the job is or was, and what changed for your household once you were earning.] What I saw first-hand. [MOST IMPORTANT SECTION. Anything you experienced yourself, for example a vacancy you were qualified for that was filled without being advertised locally, or being told no suitable South Africans had applied. Only include what you saw or experienced directly.] What I learned. [Optional. For example, training or a learnership that helped you get work, which shows that skills gaps can be closed locally.] My experience is not unusual. Many people in my community are in the same position. A job is often the only income in a household, and every vacancy matters. Objection to Clause 1(d) 1. It works against the Bill’s own purpose. Section 2(1)(h)(iii), as amended, says foreign employment must promote work opportunities for and training of South African citizens and permanent residents. Exempting a large group of non-citizens from the labour-market test and from quotas weakens that protection at a time of very high unemployment. 2. It weakens the quota test. Proposed section 12B(7)(c) requires the Minister to consider the availability of skills “among South Africans, refugees and asylum seekers” when setting a quota. A quota could therefore be set higher because skills exist among refugees and asylum seekers, even where South Africans with those skills are still looking for work. 3. Asylum seekers have no determined status. An asylum seeker is someone whose application has not yet been decided. Applications can remain pending for long periods, and not all are approved. Giving undecided applicants the same hiring status as citizens is premature.