South African government is mooting a policy that will see many foreigners working in restaurants losing their jobs to locals, top government official has said.

Speaking at a press conference on Fri

day, South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said when he returned to SA from exile in 1990, 8 out of 10 workers at restaurants were South African.

Said Mboweni, “Today almost 100% of employees in restaurants are non-South African. The new economy post-lockdown must answer that question and the establishments must have new labour market policies in place when the economy reopens.

“The proportion of South Africans working in a restaurant must be greater than that of non-South Africans. There must not be discrimination against non-South Africans.”

Mboweni statement comes a few months after Employment and Labour minister, Thulas Nxesi, said that his department will clamp down on employers not complying with the country’s labour laws by unlawfully hiring foreign workers.

Speaking at a departmental ceremony in September last year, Nxesi said that the influx and employment of foreign nationals in the country was getting out of hand.

“We cannot in this day-and-age continue with the employment of foreign nationals, and think there will be peace if you are going to take low-level jobs of low-skilled people and give it to displaced people. These are not scarce skills jobs. These are jobs that local people can be able to do. Inspectors must deal harshly with employers not complying” Nxesi said.

The South African Department of Small Business Development recently said it is working on a new law that will restrict foreigners from working in certain sections of the economy.

Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the legislation in line with

other countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe that have regulations specifying the sectors where foreign nationals are not allowed to participate.