Former child labourers trapped in cycle of deprivation, researcher finds

CHILD labour was prevalent in the Winelands until as recently as four years ago and youngsters ensnared in the sometimes brutal practice remain trapped in the effects, a researcher says.

Susan Levine, a senior lecturer at UCT, has published a book recording the findings of her research over 14 years.

She says the survivors of child labour, most of them now in their early 20s, are still caught in its aftermath.

Many were orphans when they began working.

Testimonies and Levine’s analysis show child labour on farms persisted until 2010, but went largely unrecorded.

Some children were forced through circumstance to help their fathers pick grapes. Others – some as young as eight – would leave home to work on a farm far away for a small sum to send their families.

Others were migrant child workers from rural areas who left home of their own accord, but ended up in debt to the farmer and “bondage”, working ostensibly for no pay.

A foreman told Levine: “My main duty is to scout for workers on behalf of the farmer.

“Most of these are orphans. They stay and work on the farm for six months and then

Migrant child workers ended up in debt, working for no pay

are discharged, whereupon must obtain others.

“They live in a kind of compound and no salary in cash or kind is paid to them.”

Levine interviewed seven boys from Aliwal North who were the first to file a civil com-

I plaint against a farmer for “kidnapping, assault and illegal employment”. They ranged in age from 12 to 15 at the time she spoke to them.

She says: “Their families were poor and they had hoped to send remuneration home. But upon arriving in Slanghoek, Francois (the foreman) opened an account at the farm’s shop for each boy.

“He instructed them to purchase blankets, wood, pap, a cooking stove, paraffin, work boots and overalls on credit, so that even before they started working they were indebted to (the farmer).”

Joseph, who was 12 at the time, told Levine: “When we got to the farm, we were told that our food would be deducted from our wages. We were not aware of this before. We never understood.”

Joseph told how he had been fined and beaten with a sjambok when he accidentally stood on a watermelon plant.

Olwethu, 12 – from a township called Zwelethemba (Place of Hope) – told Levine how, on her first day of work, she kept a bunch of grapes to take home for her granny to taste.

“The driver checked in my bag and found the grapes. He shouted to the farm in his walkie-talkie.

“The farmer instructed the driver to fire me and everyone else in the lorry because now

Aspirations to be anything other than a labourer are never fulfilled

he didn’t trust anyone. We all lost our jobs.”

Olwethu’s story, like the others’, has come to light only because of Levine’s research.

“I did a fair amount of work in the archives,” Levine says.

“Historically, there was quite a bit about the capturing of slaves, but in terms of the period starting in the 1950s right up until the 1990s and beyond, there is not much coverage.”

The psychological effects involve “issues of self-esteem”, Levine says.

From one generation to the next, while farmers’ children – who live in close proximity to the labourers’ families – attend private schools before going on to their chosen professions, child labourers have shifted seamlessly into adulthood as farm labourers.

In some cases, they have lost their jobs through the vicious cycle created unwittingly by the government’s setting of minimum wages: these are intended to protect them, but lead to large-scale dismissals.

“Their aspirations to become anything other than a farm labourer are never fulfilled.

“Each one I spoke to when I first met them had a dream to become something else, but all are still on the farm.

“From one generation to the next their role has been allocated to making wine.”

Levine’s book, Children of a Bitter Harvest – Child Labour in the Cape Winelands, has been published by the Human Sciences Research Council.