Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - South Africa (Ratification: 2000)

Other comments on C182

Observation

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Direct Request

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Article 5 of the Convention and Part V of the report form. Monitoring mechanisms and application of the Convention in practice. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the results achieved through the monitoring mechanisms established by the Children’s Act, including the number of violations detected and children removed from the worst forms of child labour.

The Committee notes that, according to the survey on child labour and other work-related activities in South Africa of 2010 (SAYP 2010), over the period of 12 months preceding the survey, a total number of 268,000 children aged 7 to 17 reported at least one kind of “market” economic activities, that is, work for a wage or salary, running of own business, or unpaid work in a family business, which amounts to 2.4 per cent of the total number of all children in this age group. When market and non-economic market work (that is, subsistence farming, collection of fuel and water, production of goods for household use, household construction, and catching of fish or animals for household consumption) are considered together, close to two-fifths (38 per cent) of children aged 16–17 years were engaged in economic work. For children involved in economic activities, the SAYP 2010 included a question asking whether they were exposed to a range of different hazardous situations.

The Committee notes with concern that exposure to hazardous work was common among all age groups. Among children aged 7 to 10 years involved in economic activities, 42.3 per cent were exposed to hazardous working conditions, compared to 41.8 per cent among children aged 11–14 years and 41.3 per cent among children aged 15–17 years. The results show that extreme temperatures were the most common hazard (16 per cent of children engaged in economic activities), followed by exposure to fumes, fire, gas or flames (9 per cent), carrying of heavy loads (8 per cent), and use of dangerous tools (7 per cent). Moreover, a total of 90,000 children reported having been injured in the 12 months preceding the SAYP 2010 while doing an economic work activity. The Committee requests the Government to intensify its efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, in particular hazardous work. It requests the Government to continue providing information on the nature, extent and trends of the worst forms of child labour, and to provide information on the number and nature of infringements reported through the monitoring mechanisms established by the Children’s Act, investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penal sanctions applied. To the extent possible, the information provided should be disaggregated by age and sex.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identify and reach out to children at special risk. Child orphans and other vulnerable children of HIV/AIDS (OVCs). The Committee previously noted the information in the Government’s country progress report to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the declaration of Commitment to HIV/AIDS of 2010 that there were between 1.5 million to 3 million child orphans in the country with one or both parents deceased. However, this report indicated that approximately 75 per cent of South Africa’s OVCs received some form of support, through child support grants, foster-care grants and care-dependency grants, and that the school attendance rate of orphans between the ages of 10 to 14 was only 1 per cent lower than the attendance rate of non-orphans.

The Committee takes note of the statistics communicated by the Government relating to the number of OVCs benefiting from home and community-based care services. It observes that these numbers have increased, rising from 268,336 in 2007–08, to 441,263 in 2008–09, to 617,480 in 2009–10. However, while appreciating the measures taken by the Government to protect OVCs, the Committee notes with deep concern that, according to 2011 UNAIDS estimates, the number of OVCs due to HIV/AIDS has increased to approximately 2.1 million. Recalling that OVCs are at an increased risk of being engaged in the worst forms of child labour, the Committee strongly urges the Government to strengthen its efforts to ensure that such children are protected from these worst forms. It requests the Government to provide information on the effective and time-bound measures taken in this regard, and on the results achieved, with its next report.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.