A major bank CEO just torched the whole they're-taking-our-jobs narrative with actual numbers, and honestly the math doesn't lie here. Sim Tshabalala, running the show at Standard Bank Group, told a Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation crowd that migrants coming into South Africa actually shrink unemployment rather than fuel it, backed by what he calls solid statistical evidence.
His whole argument hinges on migrants wearing a bunch of economic hats at once, think renters, shoppers, commuters, small business owners, not just people filling job slots. Buying food, paying school fees, using transport, starting companies that hire locals, all of that stacks up demand across the economy.
He also shut down the drain-on-resources angle, pointing out migrants pay into the tax system either way, whether that's through formal employment taxes or just VAT on everyday purchases like petrol and groceries.
Then he pivoted to bragging rights for South African companies operating continent-wide, naming Standard Bank, MTN, Gold Fields, Sasol, and a handful of others as proof of cross-border success. Standard Bank alone pulled in 49 billion Rand last year, with roughly 40 percent of that, about 19.7 billion, coming from outside South Africa, plus 10.3 billion paid in taxes abroad versus 7.7 billion domestically.
His whole argument hinges on migrants wearing a bunch of economic hats at once, think renters, shoppers, commuters, small business owners, not just people filling job slots. Buying food, paying school fees, using transport, starting companies that hire locals, all of that stacks up demand across the economy.
He also shut down the drain-on-resources angle, pointing out migrants pay into the tax system either way, whether that's through formal employment taxes or just VAT on everyday purchases like petrol and groceries.
Then he pivoted to bragging rights for South African companies operating continent-wide, naming Standard Bank, MTN, Gold Fields, Sasol, and a handful of others as proof of cross-border success. Standard Bank alone pulled in 49 billion Rand last year, with roughly 40 percent of that, about 19.7 billion, coming from outside South Africa, plus 10.3 billion paid in taxes abroad versus 7.7 billion domestically.
