12 hours a day for R13
2003-02-16 10:47
Johannesburg - Two farmers in the North West face possible criminal charges after Labour Department officials in the province found children aged between 13 and 15 working in their farms, the SABC reports.
Poverty is seen to contribute to the increase in this practice, which is banned internationally.
An unemployed and poor North West woman, who has refused to be named, allowed her three granddaughters aged between 13 and 15 to go and fend for themselves on a farm.
Hungry and tired, the girls were tracked down on a farm near Vryburg. They were picking chillies and tending ground nut farms for more than eight hours a day.
Labour officials and police who found the girls condemned what they saw at the farm. "In terms of the law, this is regarded as a criminal act. The type of charge or prosecution that will be imposed upon this particular employer will be a severe one," said Mandla Kubheka, of the labour department.
Another group of children was spotted working in a farm in Rooigrond. They earn R13 a day. "We start working from 06:00 until 18:00. At about 09:00 we are fed porridge and milk," said the children.
A South African Child Labour Action Programme policy document reveals that 4.8 million children across the country are engaged in child labour.