Child labour a growing concern

CHILD labour, especially on farms, is like a disease that cannot be controlled or monitored.

The Department of Labour said in a recent report this year that 70% of children engaged in child labour were in agriculture and it had seen an increase in recent years.

According to the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), it was estimated that 160 million children, of whom 63 million were girls and 97 million boys, were caught in a form of child labour globally since the start of 2020.

The provincial Department of Labour confirmed it was constantly monitoring children on farms and that the legal age of employment was between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.

Department spokesperson Mapula Tloubatla said: “The Department of Employment and Labour is conducting day-to-day inspections and also embarks on blitz projects to ensure that child labour is not taking place in the South African workplaces.

“Additionally, information sessions and advocacy is continuously done through various educational platforms to provide information and to ensure that our strategic stakeholders are informed of the provisions of the law when it comes to child law. This is done on the understanding that an informed stakeholder is a compliant stakeholder.

“The legal age of employment is between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.

“According to section 43(1) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, child labour is prohibited work that is performed by children who are under the age of 15, under the minimum school-leaving age, work or services that are inappropriate for a person of that age, work or services that place at risk the child’s well-being, education, physical or mental health, or spiritual, moral or social development.”

Tloubatla was asked if any farms were under investigation locally for child labour and said the department could not comment on ongoing audits and cases.

A local farmer who worked alongside the Department of Labour with investigations and asked not to be identified said the problem was growing: “There is no control and monitoring, it grows all the time.

“An investigation will be done, but there is no control.”

In May 2022, Mopholosi Morokong, regional occupational health and safety officer at the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations South Africa, said one of the drivers of child labour was poor wages.

Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza said in the same report by the Department of Labour that the heart of the problem was addressing the root causes of child labour and providing education.