Companies building or operating South Africa's digital communications infrastructure will receive the maximum sector score under the second phase of the department of home affairs' Trusted Employer Scheme, which opened for expressions of interest on July 20. The gazette, signed by home affairs minister Leon Schreiber on July 11, assigns those 25 points, the full sector allocation, to applicants in energy or in "strategic integrated projects," a category the notice defines as covering energy, transport, water management and digital communications. Manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, services and resource-based industries score 15 points on the same factor.
The scheme pre-vets employers so that their subsequent work visa applications face reduced documentary requirements and priority processing. Phase 2 adds pathways for companies establishing regional headquarters in South Africa and for operators in the financial sector, alongside the original pathway for South African-based operations.
Under that first pathway, applicants are scored across four factors: investment pledges worth up to 30 points, employment worth 25, economic sector worth 25 and skills transfer worth 20. A minimum of 80 points is required to qualify. To score on employment, a company needs at least 100 staff, of whom at least 60 percent are South African citizens or permanent residents; that reaches the full 25 points for companies with more than 150 employees on the same ratio. Firms with fewer than 100 staff score zero on that factor, which places most local start-ups outside the pathway.
The investment factor requires fixed capital investment above R100-million, excluding operational expenditure, either pledged at the South Africa Investment Conference or proven since 2018. Investment between R100-million and R200-million earns 20 points; above R200-million earns 30.
Richard Firth, CEO of software firm MIP Holdings, said the scoring structure makes the scheme's intent clear. "The scorecards make it clear that this isn't simply an immigration policy, it's an investment policy," he said. "Large capital investment, significant corporate tax contributions and establishing regional headquarters are heavily rewarded. Government is effectively saying: if you invest meaningfully in South Africa, we'll make it easier to bring in the people you need to build your business."
He had argued in January that South Africa's regulatory environment made it easier for multinationals to move local skills offshore than to invest in them at home. Phase 2, he said, goes some way toward addressing that. "By rewarding companies that establish regional headquarters, invest significant capital and create employment here, South Africa becomes a more attractive place for global businesses to expand. That creates more high-value jobs for South Africans and increases the likelihood that talented professionals remain in the country rather than looking abroad."
His concern centers on how the scheme handles skills transfer. On pathway 1, skills transfer accounts for 20 of the 100 available points. On the head office pathway, where the dominant scoring factor is cumulative corporate income tax and PAYE contributions to SARS above R500-million over the last two tax years (carrying 50 points), skills transfer does not appear among the scored factors. On the financial sector scorecard it carries 5 points, tied to a commitment to employ a minimum of five South African citizens or permanent residents within 24 months of starting operations.
"The real question is whether we're using immigration to build local capability or simply to fill immediate gaps," Firth said. "Skills transfer is worth 20 points under the investment pathway, yet it disappears entirely for companies establishing regional or global headquarters, where tax contribution becomes the dominant measure. Long-term economic success depends on knowledge staying behind. Every specialist who enters the country should leave South Africa with more local capability than existed before they arrived. A faster visa process should be viewed as an accelerator for skills development, not a substitute for it."
Jobs portal Pnet said the scheme would help employers facing skills shortages but questioned how far its reach extends. "The scheme is primarily designed for larger employers that can demonstrate significant investment, skills development and economic contribution," the company said. "Many smaller businesses may struggle to benefit directly from the programme, despite facing acute challenges in recruiting and retaining specialised talent." Pnet suggested the benefits could still flow over time to "smaller businesses that compete with larger companies for the same talent but cannot match their salaries, benefits packages or career opportunities."
The gazette states that the scheme is "not for the employment of unskilled and low-wage labour" and that its stated purpose is to ease processing for "senior executives, technical personnel, corporate employees and investors." A new third pathway, covering what the gazette calls synthetic financial centres in the South African financial sector, requires authorisation from the Reserve Bank's financial surveillance department and routes applications through an "SFC visa facilitation office." That office must certify that all proposed roles are mapped to qualifying OFO codes on the critical skills list.
The department said phase 2 "features a dedicated online application process that will ultimately be integrated into the world-class Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) platform." Schreiber said in February that home affairs intends to route all visa processing through the ETA and eliminate manual processing by the end of the current administration in 2029.
