The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has been doing a good deal of work in South Africa and its neighbouring countries on child labour. Indeed, this is an international concern in which the UN has developed a number of protocols. To a lesser or greater extent, individual countries have also addressed this phenomenon by passing laws and adopting strategies to reduce it, if not eliminate it entirely. In South Africa, it is prohibited by the constitution and several other laws, but this does not mean that the practice has been stopped altogether.

The line between what might be called ‘child work’ and ‘child labour’ is a very thin one and it is not uncommon in rural Africa for the former to develop into the latter because of the extent to which it impacts on a child’s healthy development. The undertaking of domestic chores by children either within a family or a community is to be encouraged. The benefits to the child of learning to contribute positively to the welfare of a family or community are clear. However, circumstances sometimes result in the demands on children being too onerous for their own good. They might be required to work so long and hard that their access to school is impeded, or, as happens quite often, they might be required to carry loads that are too heavy for their young frames to bear. Fetching and carrying water over long distances, for example, proves hazardous to a child’s development, especially if the child is a girl.

It is not difficult to realize that poverty and deprivation are important factors that contribute towards this over-burdening of children. At the same time, distances from school and the cost of schooling also tend to promote school avoidance, especially in a situation where parents, deprived of schooling themselves, do not recognize the long-term benefits of education.

Aside from the desperate struggle that many have to evade poverty by using all available human resources, including children, there are those who are responsible, as a result of their cynical greed, for what are known as the ‘worst forms of child labour’. These are situations in which the vulnerability of children is exploited by adults whose motives are selfish greed. It is a blight on humanity that people engage in child trafficking, the forced use of children for prostitution and their use in the perpetration of criminal activities. Although these forms of child abuse are usually illegal, except in the least progressive of countries, they are not uncommon for the reason that the successful prosecution of abusers is often difficult. Those who exploit the vulnerability of children know well enough that it is easy to intimidate a young person whose support structure is weak.

An essential part of a good support structure for a child is the school where there should be evidence of such care and concern that frequent absences, poor performance, listlessness and so on are investigated because they may be the signs of child labour, or even the worst forms of child labour.

Zinhle Sokhela - PCB President

This article appeared in the Eden Eyethu on the 19 June 2008