ATE: 18 April 2021

PUBLICATION: politicsweb
STRAP:
HEADLINE: The End of a Strange Luncheon
BLURB: further reflections on the scarce skills list
BYLINE: Benji Shulman

William Saunderson-Meyer’s article  The scatterlings and swallows of South Africa, reminded me of a
time before the onset of the Rona when I tagged along on the occasion of a strange luncheon. All
present at the luncheon were connected, though most of them had never met.  Rather the
key common denominator was that they all at one time went to the same fancy Ivy League College
in America – the kind that produces fortune 500 CEOs, Supreme Court judges and the occasional
presidential candidate. 
You see, when one attends this sort of institution, one leaves with certain advantages to compensate
for the eye-watering student debt and an unusual intimacy with one’s own pronouns. Among these
benefits is access to the past pupil intranet, the internal alma mater Facebook. When an alumnus
pitches up in a foreign city alone – in say, Johannesburg – all they need do is search the platform and
invite whoever else is around for organic botanical G&Ts. This is how the One Percent network, with
a luminous digital alumni Bat Signal.
What are these Ivy League alumni doing in Joburg? Well, it turns out that after four or more years of
ultra-elite higher education, they had grown a little bored with America, its Orange Bad Man and
campaigns against cultural appropriation. The world is big and there are other places that might
benefit from their fancy degrees and boundless altruism. Sunny South Africa ranks as a good
destination: flights are direct,  coffee culture is sophisticated, the locals have cute accents and at the
end of a long, hard day saving the global south, one can enjoy first world wine at third world prices.
Of course, not everything is perfect in South Africa. Attendees at the luncheon had learnt about load
shedding and worried about attacks on Uber drivers. They also never seemed to be satisfied with the
speed of the internet. But without doubt the main topic of contention was precisely the
same bureaucratic barrier identified in Saunderson-Meyer’s piece, the Scarce Skills List. To recap, the
Scarce Skills List is a compilation of all the jobs in the country for which a foreign worker might
conceivably get a job-related visa. The list is drawn up by civil servants somewhere in the
Department of Home Affairs and it has been outdated for years. President Ramaphosa promised at
his most recent State of the Nation Address that after a two-year delay, a proper review would be
completed. A new list of potential jobs types is currently being developed but nothing has yet been
finalised officially. 
The problem is that leaving a task such as this to government officials – as opposed to a more
flexible, industry centric approach – is that it tends to result in a lack of imagination. The members of
this gathering illustrated this well. Take, for example, the woman who is involved with finding
international donors for a local university. She couldn't be accommodated on the scarce skill list.
Similarly, no visa was available for the former corporate banker pioneering a new educational model
in an inner-city school, nor for the organiser of women’s empowerment loans in some long-lost
township. The multi-award-winning, avant-garde artist and digital investigations journalist at least
had a chance because there was a special section for creative workers. Unfortunately, Home Affairs
did not put it on their website so it took access to a smart lawyer to know about it. It wasn't all
gloom though, sheep shearers had a special space on the list and the new updates suggest that
caravan sales people may be added soon.  

 A lot of focus on scarce skills often goes to the older more moneyed potential immigrants that we
can get to come to our shores. But these International graduates with their far-reaching connections
and innovative ideas have equally much to offer South Africa. A sure method of keeping
these instagramming globetrotters away however is talk of expensive immigration lawyers
and traumatic trips to Home Affairs. There are many other places in the world – even on the
continent – that are happy to have their scarce skills. As a result, almost no one from the Luncheon is
still in our country.  Who knows when, or even if, they will ever be back?  An occasional updating of
the Scarce Skills List is not going to solve the problem. The reign of the digital nomad has dawned,
it's time our immigration procedures got out the dark ages. 
ENDS
Benji is a radio broadcast host on 101.9 ChaiFM