JOHANNESBURG - The belief that foreign nationals are taking jobs from South Africans has become a powerful rallying cry across the country.
With unemployment remaining stubbornly high and frustrations over poor public services mounting, protests have intensified, with many demonstrators blaming foreign nationals for the country’s lack of job opportunities.
However, new research from Wits University’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies paints a different picture.
The study found that foreign nationals hold fewer than four percent of South Africa’s formal jobs.
By analysing South African Revenue Service (SARS) tax records, researchers found that foreign workers account for just 3.4 percent of formal employment, a figure that has remained virtually unchanged over the past decade.
Researcher Justin Visagie says South Africans have every reason to be frustrated by the country’s economic challenges.
"The average South African has every right to be very frustrated with where they find themselves. There are very high levels of unemployment, struggles with failures of public service delivery, and many other challenges," he explains.
"But we also need to ask who is ultimately responsible."
Visagie says SARS tax data provides a clear picture of formal employment.
"We can count the number of foreigners in our formal jobs market very easily because we have access to SARS tax returns. Analysing those records, we found that only about 3.4 percent of all formal jobs go to foreigners."
He puts the figure into perspective.
"If you lined up 100 people in a queue, only one, two, three, or perhaps four would be foreign nationals. We also found that this proportion has remained constant over the last ten years."
According to Visagie, the evidence leaves little room for debate about the formal labour market.
"Foreigners simply do not make up a large share of formal employment."
He cautions, however, that the picture is less clear in the informal economy, where reliable data is more difficult to obtain.
"When it comes to the informal sector, it's a trickier discussion."