Farm employers in South Africa face much stiffer penalties for breaking the rules on hiring foreign workers under a bill now before Parliament, the agribusiness chamber Agbiz told its annual information session in Pretoria on 8 October.
Agbiz agricultural economist and policy analyst Thapelo Machaba said the Employment Services Amendment Bill (B16-2026), open for public comment until 6 November 2026, introduces tiered civil penalties of up to R100,000 for a first contravention and up to R200,000 for a repeat within three years. Employers with two or more earlier contraventions would face the greater of R1 million or 10 percent of annual turnover. She added that the government plans to recruit 10,000 more labour inspectors at a cost of about R10 billion.
Under the bill, employers must check that a foreign national holds a valid visa for the specific job, show that no suitable South African candidate is available, file a skills-transfer plan for each such position unless exempt, and offer terms no less favourable than for citizens. The labour minister could also set quotas for foreign workers by sector, occupation or region. "This may involve more detailed verification processes and closer attention to documentation throughout the employment life cycle," Machaba said.
She also described a white paper on citizenship and immigration under which today's skills visa and general work visa would likely merge into a points-based skilled worker visa, and the corporate visa used for seasonal and short-term work would be replaced by a sectoral visa.
Agbiz legal intelligence specialist Sakhile Vanqa said the chamber is concentrating on four legal areas: water, petroleum, food labelling and crop protection products. Agriculture uses 60 percent of the country's water, he said, and irrigation, which supports 25 to 30 percent of farm output, accounts for 90 percent of high-value crops such as fruit and potatoes. The 1947 act governing fertilisers, feeds and agricultural remedies is under review and new legislation is being drafted.
Agbiz trade researcher Charmaine Ka Makhaya said South Africa kept an agricultural trade surplus in the second quarter of 2026, with exports of about US$4.1 billion (around R67.5 billion), up 10 percent year on year. Maize, fresh apples, wine and animal feed led exports, with Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique the biggest buyers.
Source: Farmers Weekly South Africa
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