Through its secretary, Tumo Moaneng, the Association Business Council of Botswana (ABCB) has said that they are in the dark over the criteria government is using to issue work and resident permits. "We are in the dark. We don't know the criteria used to allow foreigners to be permitted to work or invest in this country," Moaneng told Mmegi this week. The government has tightened the process of issuing work and residence permits after the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs introduced a Point Based System (PBS) earlier this year. The ministry says the PBS is a flexible, comprehensive and objective way of assessing the suitability of an immigrant to be employed or to invest in a country. It works by awarding points for the attributes considered desirable in immigrants who want to live and invest or work in a country. But ABCB is up in arms after the PBS resulted in a high rate of rejection of applications. Moaneng has said that a foreigner has to score more than 75% in order to be given a permit. Recently, she claimed that five of her clients were denied permits because the ministry said they scored below the cut off point. Some of her clients were told they did not meet the clearance criteria. "Even those who have been here for decades are being rejected when they apply for renewal. This is likely to turn away investors from Botswana," she lamented.
The Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) has said they are aware of the high turn down rate of expatriates' applications since the introduction of PBS. The BOCCIM head of public affairs, marketing and communication Komissa Burzlaff, said the PBS stems from a resolution made at the 2010 National Business Conference (NBC). "Private sector in the past was generally disappointed with the work and residence permits issuance process, particularly the length of time, which was slow, and the non-transparency of the awarding system. This caused inconveniences and at times was a tedious process for investors, which resulted in many investors reversing their decision to invest in Botswana, and in some cases, the loss of vital professional skills," Burzlaff explained.
