Migrant labour shortage HITS South Africa

An inevitable irony is hiding in plain sight as a migrant labour shortage takes hold of South Africa. Following the March & March shutdown on 30 June 2026, factories and farm fields sit empty. Meanwhile, government inspectors are raiding workplaces to find very few were in compliance with the labour law to begin with …

MIGRANT LABOUR SHORTAGE HITS SA

More than 160 000 foreign workers have fled South Africa in recent weeks, chased out by anti-migrant unrest. Zimbabweans and Malawians made up the biggest share of those who fled. Now, almost inevitably, farms in KwaZulu-Natal are suffering a migrant labour shortage. One sugarcane farmer lost 80% of his cutting crew overnight. Likewise, citrus and other fruits hang unpicked, rotting mid-harvest.

Chatsworth clothing factories in Durban tell the same story. Skilled machinists from Lesotho and Mozambique are gone. And they can barely hit their targets due to the migrant labour shortage. Concurrently, the Department of Employment and Labour is running a nationwide inspection blitz. But the findings are diabolical …  

HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYERS NON-COMPLIANT

In a release last week, of the 114 workplaces checked, just three were compliant with the latest labour law. Three. Deputy Minister Jomo Sibiya inspected a company in Centurion paying workers R28 per hour against a legal minimum of R30.23. Staff worked more than 12-hour shifts unpaid. And some workers were locked inside overnight. Suffice to say none were registered for UIF, SASSA or any other government compensation fund.

Moreover, the blitz arrested a further 137 foreign nationals still in the employ of unscrupulous business owners. Migrant labour shortage aside, the department’s own numbers suggest the worst offenders were breaking almost every labour law on the books. Now here’s the impasse. Employers say they’re desperate for the workers who just left. And government inspectors say the workplaces those workers occupied were completely illegal by design. Underpaying below minimum wage to unregistered migrants in unsafe conditions.

EXPLOITATION OF MIGRANT LABOURERS

Till now, employers have preferred hiring foreign workers precisely because they’re cheaper and easier to exploit, not because locals won’t do the work. Meanwhile, South Africa’s unemployment rate sits above 33%. So, what last month’s unrest has done is push migrants out over jobs, only for government to discover, blitz after blitz, that the jobs they held were illegal and untenable anyway. Quite the conundrum …

But what do you think? What can be done to solve the migrant labour shortage in SA and get South Africans employed? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below …