Nam’s battle in doing justice to child labour cases

NDAMA NAKASHOLE

The labour ministry has investigated several allegations of child labour over the years and criminal cases were opened, but none of them could be successfully prosecuted.

In an interview with Market Watch on Friday, the ministry of labour’s permanent secretary, Bro-Matthew Shinguadja, said this was because there was no evidence establishing an employer/employee relationship.

“Some of the alleged cases involved foreign nationals who were not in possession of any identification documents and birth certificates, which are prerequisites for verification in determining someone’s age,” he said.

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According to Shinguadja, the ministry received no direct complaints of child labour in 2017/2018, in contrast with previous years.

The police did refer one case to the ministry of gender and child welfare to investigate though, which was forwarded to the office of the prosecutor-general.

“Details are confidential as per the procedures,” he said.

Nam trend

Child labour does exist in Namibia, he said.

“But it is very complex scientifically to confirm it, especially in communal areas and private households where families are using other family members to do work on request of and [with the] permission of parents,” he said.

“When it comes to prosecution, it is a big challenge to get evidence and other information as people are not willing to talk,” he said.

According to him, the information they have is that child labourers in Namibia are paid very little and are passed off as family members. He said child employees’ salaries range between N$300 and N$500 a month. However, it depends on the person who organised the child or the parent who gave the consent and the area where they are based, he said.

Data collection development

Shinguadja said the ministry was consulting with the Namibia Statistics Agency and the National Planning Commission to conduct a survey for data collection and storage regarding child labour cases and trends in the country.

“Currently, the ministry (of labour) is working on the E-Labour Data System Project, which is at an advanced stage, to capture and store labour statistics,” he said.

National issue

Shinguadja said there is a need for coordination as child labour is not the issue of the ministry alone. He said combating child labour requires the involvement of all citizens, as it takes place mainly in unmonitored sectors such as domestic work, informal trading and agriculture.

Anyone with information can send an SMS to the ministry’s SMS line 66111 or report to any nearby regional office in all the 14 regions, he said.

Day Against Child Labour

World Day Against Child Labour is an International Labour Organisation-sanctioned holiday first launched in 2002, aiming to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour.

According to the United Nations website, worldwide, there are 218 million children between 5 and 17 years who are in employment.

Among them, 152 million are victims of child labour; almost half of them, 73 million, work in hazardous child labour, the website reads.

In absolute terms, almost half of child labour (72.1 million cases) is to be found in Africa. In terms of prevalence, one in five children in Africa (19.6%) is involved in child labour.