40% of South Africa critical skill permits issued to Zimbabweans

South Africa has issued 4,913 critical skills visas since 2020 to nationals from over 100 countries, with more than half (55%) of those going to people from Zimbabwe and India.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber revealed the information in a recent parliamentary Q&A, where he noted that the department exhausted "all efforts" to determine that no South African citizens or permanent residents had the necessary skills and qualifications to fill the positions before issuing the visas to foreign nationals.

"This was done in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training. The methodology used to determine the critical skills is detailed in a Technical Report on Critical Skills published on the website DHET," he said.

Out of the 4,913 visas issued since 1 January 2020, 1,794 were issued to Zimbabwean nationals for hundreds of different jobs.

The biggest job category for which Zimbabwean nationals were issued a critical skills visa was trainee auditors, followed by integrated development, software developers, nursing, and ICT systems analysts.

After Zimbabwe, the second biggest import country for critical skills in South Africa is India, where 918 visas have been issued.

Visas to Indian nationals are mainly around

The table below outlines the top 20 countries that have been issued critical skills visas to South Africa:


#    Country    Visas
1    Zimbabwe    1,794
2    India    918
3    The Democratic Republic of Congo    295
4    Nigera    286
5    Cameroon    90
6    Germany    85
7    China    84
8    The United Kingdom    82
9    Kenya    75
9    The USA    75
11    Lesotho    63
12    France    62
13    Pakistan    58
14    Zambia    50
15    Swaziland    48
16    Angola    45
17    Uganda    41
18    The Netherlands    39
19    Ghana    36
20    Botswana    35
Critical skills

South Africa's critical skills list was updated for the first time since 2014 in February 2022, sparking controversy in the medical field at the time as most of the jobs cut from the list came from that sector.

In response to this, the list was updated again in August 2022, where 39 more occupations—largely from the medical field—were added to the list.

The last time the list was updated was in October 2023, where vets were added to the growing number of scarce skills in the country—however, general practitioners and doctors remain off the list.

You can view South Africa's full Critical Skills List here.
The department previously acknowledged that there has been "fierce criticism" of the critical skills list, mainly emanating from the professions that were cut.

It said that the Critical Skills List ought to be updated every four years due to the ever-changing skills shortage in South Africa.

In lieu of more regular updated to the critical skills list, the department is engaging in other ways to make it easier for the country to draw in the skills it needs.

The department is forging ahead with the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES), which should help businesses acquire international workers to address their skill shortages.

The country has also moved to implement a remote working visa, which should draw additional skills into the country.

International workers are seen as a short- and medium-term solution to the current skills shortage that many corporations in South Africa face, with skilled workers – especially those with STEM and IT skills – often heading in the other direction.

South Africa's battle with skills is happening on all fronts.

Within the country itself, there is a dearth of skills that match the growing needs of businesses—and the skills that are present are either snapped up by companies, head for the exit due to various ‘push' factors, or are working remotely for international companies.

Other countries outside of South Africa are also looking for skills, and local talent is ripe for the picking.

Countries like Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK have all pointed to dire shortages of skills in certain fields and expressed a willingness to draw these skills to their shores—and for South African talent with itchy feet, the prospects are often too inviting to ignore.