I recently hired a "refugee" from Zambia. He has his SA home affairs refugee papers and that's about it.

Now I will only pay salaries into bank accounts, so he had to open one, and of course the FICA roadblock came up. What FNB wanted was a very specifically worded letter from the employer... wait, let me find it:

Re: Confirmation of employment: NH.

As per the payroll records of the company, I hereby confirm that Mr. NH, Department: Home Affairs file number DBNZMB0000xxxxx, is an employee of this company and according to our payroll records resides at xxxxx and earns a monthly salary of Rxxx.00 per month.

Yours faithfully
On a company letterhead and with a company stamp on it and apparently this is deemed acceptable in some sort of arrangement somewhere, somehow.

And they're pretty pedantic about the wording. When he told me he needed a confirmation of employment letter I issued our standard one - which they would not accept.

I don't know whether this is an FNB thing, just for the specific branch or what, but it did the trick. He got his bank account.

I can tell you he was absolutely chuffed. He's been in the country for 8 years already and it's his first bank account.
Damn fine employee too, BTW.