The National Child Labour Action Programme for South Africa

Draft 4.10, October 2003

Draft 4.1 of this document was provisionally approved by a broad forum of stakeholders, including representatives of many government departments, on 4 September 2003. The approval was subject to a few changes and further consultation with key stakeholders, due to have been held on their request. Various stakeholders engaged with the drafters after that date, and amendments were made to the document to address their inputs. This draft 4.10 is now submitted to government for its final internal approval process and to other stakeholders for their final mandate seeking processes. October 2003

Prepared for the Department of Labour

Private Bag X117

0001 Pretoria

South Africa

Fax to (012) 309-4709; or

Email: joy.mehlomakulu@labour.gov.za AND nochildlabour@ananzi.co.za

This and other related documents and links are available or should be available soon at http://www.labour.gov.za (then follow the links to ‘Child labour documents’)

Produced in cooperation with International Labour Organisation (ILO)

International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)

ILO Area Office, P O Box 11694, Hatfield 0028

Tel (012) 431-8800 / Fax (012) 431-8859
CONTENTS

The Constitution provides that children under 18 have a right to be protected from work that is exploitative, hazardous or otherwise inappropriate for their age, detrimental to their schooling, or detrimental to their social, physical, mental, spiritual or moral development (s 28). The term 'work' is not limited to work in so-called economic activities (e.g. paid employment) but includes chores or household activities in the child's household (such as collecting wood and fuel), where such work is exploitative, hazardous, inappropriate for their age or detrimental to their development. The term 'child labour' as used in the Child Labour Action Programme (CLAP) covers all such forms of child work.

South Africa has ratified the ILO Minimum Age for Admission to Employment Convention of 1973. This Convention requires of ratifying states to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work. South Africa also assisted in drafting the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999), which it ratified in 2000. In terms of this convention South Africa must take time-bound measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour (WFCL). These include forms of bonded labour, commercial sexual exploitation of children, trafficking of children, and the use of children by others in illegal activities, including drug trafficking.

The Government of South Africa has for the past seven years been involved in a process towards the formulation of appropriate policies and a national action programme to combat child labour. The Department of Labour is the lead department in the process.

The South African Government has a wide range of existing programmes that are directly and indirectly improving the situation of children. Many are aimed at addressing poverty, for example, the public works programmes, the provision of basic infrastructure, access to basic services and the roll out of social grants that benefit children. The programmes are funded for the most part from the government budget. The CLAP is intended to complement and strengthen the existing programmes where they are not adequately preventing child labour.

The first step in the development of the South African CLAP was the establishment of a reliable and credible database on child work in the country. In 1999, Statistics South Africa conducted the first national household-based survey of child work in South Africa, the Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP). The official results of the SAYP were released in October 2002. The survey provides a national, quantitative picture of child work in the country and gives an indication of the different categories of working children who are most in need or who are at the greatest risk of exploitation in work and employment.

In addition to the SAYP, as part of the development of the CLAP, all known qualitative research conducted within South Africa on areas relevant to this policy was reviewed. This review was used, in particular, to inform those elements of the policy that deal with forms of work and employment that survey methodologies cannot address.

The SAYP and review of qualitative research confirmed that South Africa does not seem to have as serious a problem in regard to child labour as some other countries. In particular, the extent of child labour in the formal sectors of the economy is limited. However, the SAYP also confirmed that there indeed are children in the country who are doing unacceptable amounts of work, or work of an unacceptable nature. South Africa clearly needs to address these if it is to fulfil its commitment in terms of the Constitution and international conventions. Addressing the problems sooner rather than later should also help to avoid their multiplying and becoming more serious and difficult to address in the future.

Following the process of gathering information, the Government of South Africa began formulating appropriate policies and a national action programme to combat child labour. This was done through a process of extensive consultation with the South African public and engagement with key stakeholders. Stakeholders consulted included government departments, organised labour, organised business and relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The consultation process included focus groups with affected children, who were asked about their experiences and subsequently asked for their opinion on proposed policy measures aimed at addressing their specific circumstances. Exercises were also conducted with children in grade seven in schools throughout the country.

The consultative process has culminated in the drafting of a national CLAP for South Africa.

The process of developing the CLAP was overseen and guided by an inter-sectoral National Steering Committee involving key departments, employers' and workers organisations, NGOs and the community constituency of NEDLAC. The National Steering Committee was coordinated and chaired by the Department of Labour.

The following principles were applied in the drafting of the CLAP :

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  Need for prioritisation: Because of limited resources the programme identified the forms of child work that should be prioritised. These were identified primarily on the basis of the number of children involved and the degree of harm of particular forms of work. The country also needed to take action first, and urgently, on the worst forms of child labour identified in the Convention.
  
• 
  Learn from others where appropriate: South Africa has developed an indigenous programme that suits the local context, but has borrowed, where appropriate, the best practices from other countries. It has also learnt from the mistakes of others.
  
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  The programme of action must be as realistic as possible, and take into account existing financial and human capacity and the extent to which capacity can be further developed within the time and resources available.
  
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  The programme must be sustainable. In order to achieve sustainability, it must be able to be funded from government funds after a possible initial injection of donor funds which the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has undertaken to help government access to assist with once-off expenditures that can kick-start ongoing, sustainable activities.
  
• 
  The programme must build on and fit in with existing programmes of government.
  

The majority of the activities making up the CLAP already forms part of government policy. In these cases the programme confirms that these activities contribute to addressing child labour. Where appropriate, it proposes that implementation be strengthened. In some cases, the CLAP suggests a variation of an existing programme or policy which will allow it to combat child labour more effectively. Neither of the above two types of proposals will involve significant expenditure or other resources from government.

In a few cases, the CLAP proposes new activities, some of which will necessitate new expenditures. These are clearly identified in the programme document. For each activity – whether existing, a variation of existing, or new – the programme identifies whether once-off and ongoing costs will be minimal, moderate or significant. The Department of Labour will undertake a costing exercise regarding at least those items identified as being moderately or significantly costly.

Key elements of the CLAP are:

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  Targeting the rollout of government and other stakeholders’ programmes and policies on poverty, employment, labour and social matters more effectively in areas where the work that children do has serious negative affects on them;
  
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  Promoting new legislative measure against worst forms of child labour;
  
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  Strengthening of national capacity to enforce legislative measures;
  
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  Increasing public awareness and social mobilization against the worst forms of child labour.