Inspectors are probing a North West farmer on child labour allegations after a 13-year-old boy was injured while allegedly working on his farm, the Department of Labour said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Monwabisi Maclean said the inspectors are investigating the possibility that the owner of the Bruidegomskraal farm, in Ventersdorp, was employing children from nearby villages during the harvest season.
Maclean said the child was admitted to hospital after he had injured his legs when he fell from a moving tractor on Wednesday afternoon.
”The investigating team will be meeting with local social workers and the police’s child-protection unit with the view to opening a criminal case against the farmer,” said Maclean.
According to Maclean, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has appealed to commercial farmers to contribute positively to help underprivileged children, and not give them jobs that will hamper their development.
”There are enough adults who can be employed to do this work, especially work that could be detrimental to children either hampering their social development or their education,” said Mdladlana.
He added: ”Child labour is unacceptable — it destroys childhood while taking employment opportunities away from adults. The only people who benefit are the least scrupulous and most unsavoury employers.”
It is by law an offence to employ children under the age of 15 as labourers and an employer could face a jail sentence of up to two years or a R15 000 fine if found guilty.
Last week, Johannes Oosthuizen of the Hartebeeslaagte farm in the Tosca area, also in North West, was found guilty and fined R15 000 in the Vryburg Magistrate’s Court for using children as labourers.
Maclean said the children, the youngest of them only eight years old, were employed from neighbouring villages and given work to harvest ground nuts. — Sapa