Close to a third of South Africa’s estimated 13,4-million children work, mostly on farms and in family businesses, according to a Department of Labour document on child labour. This is despite the fact that employing children under 15 is illegal.
According to the department’s draft Green Paper, Towards a National Child Labour Action Programme, almost two-thirds (59%) of the 4,8-million employed children worked because ”they had a duty to help their fami- lies”. Another 15% of children said they helped ”the family with money”.
The Green Paper says that 41% of African children were involved in economic activity compared to only 9% of white children and shows that almost two-thirds (59%) of children did more than three hours of agricultural labour a week. Fifty-five percent engaged in more than 12 hours of economic activity a week.
The document also reveals that:
- An estimated 19000 children, excluding street children, beg in public for at least three hours a week.
- About 395 000 children worked nights in the past year, including 75000 in the five to nine age group. About two million children said they were exposed to hazardous conditions.
- A third of children worked for themselves in the retail sector.
- About 432 000 children aged between five and 17, or 3%, said they performed unpaid household chores for 14 hours or more a week.
The paper — based on the 1999 household-focused Survey of Activities of Young People — also finds a link between child labour and poverty. ”Lack of access to services such as electricity and piped water increases the likelihood not only of fetching water and fuel, but also of other forms of child work,” it says. ”The importance of poverty as a factor encouraging child work is confirmed by the responses of many children that their reason for working is to contribute to the family.”
It also refers to the effects of HIV/Aids, in the form of growing numbers of child-headed households. Child breadwinners unable to access state grants were at greater risk of having to work.
The Department of Labour is to hold provincial public hearings from July. A national anti-child work programme involving the department, social services and the police, is expected to be in place by the end of the year.