'Most Notably' (4 May 2026)

Today's 'Most Notably' follows a three-day week with a public holiday on each end, so this will be brief.

Employment & Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth is under the mistaken impression that an Employment Services Amendment Bill has been tabled in Parliament. That's if the official version of her May Day speech correctly reflects the Minister's understanding of the status of this proposed new piece of legislation.

According to the speech, once tabled, passed by Parliament, enacted and operationalised, it will provide for the regulation of foreign nationals in the job market, particularly in "specific, lower skilled sectors", thus:

• opening those sectors to South African citizens, and

• to some extent "address(ing) rising unemployment".

Confusion around the Bill's status began in January 2024 with a misleading media statement from the Department of Employment & Labour among other things claiming that "the National Labour Migration Policy and Employment Services Bill are currently in Parliament before the legislators". SA Legal Academy reported on this at the time.

A draft Employment Services Amendment Bill was gazetted in February 2022 for public comment – but the final version approved by Cabinet in May 2025 for tabling has never materialised.

The Minister's speech also refers to the National Labour Migration Policy, which she appears to believe is also before Parliament. In fact, that august institution tends not to be involved in White Paper development processes – focusing, instead, on legislation underpinned by official government policy. A White Paper on Labour Migration was gazetted in May 2025, since when there have been no further official pronouncements on that particular issue. SA Legal Academy reported on the White Paper when it was published.

The Minister's remarks about a "Labour Relations Amendment Bill" are also misleading. It has yet to be gazetted in draft form for public comments. That said, according to her speech, among other things the elusive draft Bill seeks to "introduce a more equitable parental leave system by replacing the fragmented maternity and parental leave framework with a shared parental leave model". 

It was approved by Cabinet on 25 February 2026 for the required public commentary period – along with the draft Labour Laws Amendment Bill, which was gazetted the following day as SA Legal Academy immediately reported.

citizenship, immigration & refugees

The Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn a reference list included in a revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration & Refugee Protection, having detected "apparent artificial intelligence (AI) 'hallucinations'" among the documents cited. However, the body of the revised White Paper "continues to accurately reflect ... government’s position on the policy reforms required". This is according to a media statement issued on 30 April 2026. The revised White Paper was gazetted on 12 December 2025 for public comment, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

The department's somewhat startling revelation followed the recent withdrawal of a draft national AI policy for similar reasons.

A review is now under way of "all policy documents" produced by the Department of Home Affairs since 30 November 2022, "when the first large language model was released to the general public".

Perhaps it would be prudent for other national departments to follow suit?

Until next Monday ...

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