Back to Index

New form of child labor in towns
Tapiwa Zivira,The Independent ( Zimbabwe)
October 24, 2008

Standing in the crowded pavement of Harare's First Street, clad in tattered blue shorts and cream T-shirts, 10 year old Johannes shouts out to passersby to buy the low priced airtime subscription cards dubbed Baccosi after the central bank's programme of giving out commodities at cheap prices.

"Baccosi Baccosi airtime!" is Johannes' daily song as he wakes up at five a.m. everyday, walks a few kilometres from Mbare high density suburb into the city centre where, instead of being in a classroom, he spends the day selling airtime.

At the end of the long, hot day, Johannes surrenders all the day's takings to his 'employer', a foreign currency dealer, walks back home to wait for yet another day in the streets. Johannes is not the only child who have left school to work, as over the past months, there has been an increase of children in the streets selling trading fast selling commodities such as airtime cards sweets and corn snacks.

These children are either employed by some unscrupulous dealers who have exploit the children's poverty and hunger or they are forced by their parents to go into the streets to supplement family income. A survey has revealed that the bulk of children have since lost interest in school and prefer to work to make quick money than to spend the day in a classroom on an empty stomach.

To make it worse, teachers have been on an indefinite strike since the start of the third term with in September and this has virtually dashed the children's prospects of going back to school.

The Coalition Against Child Labour in Zimbabwe (CACLAZ) Co-ordinator Pascal Masocha has attributed this trend to the worsening poverty levels in the country. "In many cases, as poverty mounts children are being forced out of school to work in order to augment family income and some of these children are falling prey to unscrupulous dealers who illegally employ these children to sell their products and pay them very little afterwards," said Masocha. Masocha however, said there is no justification to child labour as it is a form of abuse just like others.

"We should not in any circumstances, good or bad, tolerate child labour as it is a social ill," he said. Zimbabwe's inflation, estimated to be over 231million percent, has resulted in many children dropping out of school as the cost of living continues to soar. Apart from having a physical effect of wearing these children out, spending the whole day standing in the streets affects the child psychologically.

Far from the towns, down in the rural areas, the levels of child labour have also increased to alarming levels as many pupils are also dropping out of school.

The General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe, whose constituents are mainly farm and rural communities, also attributed the increase of child labour to the rising poverty levels and hunger. The union's secretary general Gertrude Hambira said while GAPWUZ was engaged in efforts to eliminate child labour there is still more that needs to be done by relevant stakeholders.

"The issue of child labour needs collaborative efforts from all the stakeholders and there should also be the participation of the children and the communities in which child labour is rampant because unless you make the people see the terrible effects of child labour, it will continue unabated" she said. Hambira said hoped the upcoming Africa Tour Against Child Labour 2008 will provide an opportunity for a fresh, collective approach to combating child labour.

"We are looking forward to the tour as we believe this is a platform for all the stakeholders in child issues to evaluate the success of the current efforts with the view to restrategise, not only as Zimbabwe alone but as Africa and world because the issue of child labour is a global concern which needs the attention of the whole world" added Hambira.

The 'Stop child labour campaign' is a joint lobby, education and awareness raising campaign that seeks to eliminate child labour through the provision of full-time, formal and quality education.

The campaign is being carried out by the Alliance 2015 network of European development organizations which include, Cesvi, (Italy), Concern (Ireland), Deutsche Welthunger Hilfe (Germany), Ibis (Denmark), Hivos (Netherlands) and The People in Need-PIN (Czech Republic) in cooperation with three other Dutch organisations the general Education Union (Aob), the Dutch confederation of trade unions (FNV) and the India committee of the Netherlands (ICN) A delegation consisting of representatives from MVF (India), ASMAAN (Nepad) and SNE (Morocco) will be in Zimbabwe from 18 October to November 6 2008.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP