State policies are at odds with investment drive

I am an attorney who often advises and assists Brazilian investors who want to set up shop in SA, and as such I operate in the trenches of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment drive. While Ramaphosa actively encourages investors to invest, for which he must be lauded, his ministers and their departments still go about making things as difficult as possible.

It is now standard practice for SA consulates worldwide to refuse to accept any visa application from an attorney on behalf of a client. They also refuse even to interact with attorneys when the consulate raises issues with the application that require specialist knowledge. We live in troubling times when a government institution removes the constitutional right to legal representation by means of a board decision. Such a decision is irrational and likely illegal and, since SAQA operates under the precepts of the SA Qualifications Authority Act of 1995, the decision is open to be overturned by a high court in a review application for infringing various constitutional rights .

Or imagine the surprise a busy foreign director of a multinational would get when the upmarket law firm it had hired to assist with a visa application tells her she will have to apply to SAQA for an evaluation of her MBA and PhD herself. Investors hire lawyers to get things done on their behalf, because they have neither the time nor the knowledge to do it themselves.

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