Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

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

Articles 3(d) and 5 of the Convention. Hazardous work, monitoring mechanisms and application of the Convention in practice. The Committee notes from the Government’s report under the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), the indication that the Department of Employment and Labour continues to conduct child labour inspections and that it actively participates in intersectoral investigations alongside other partners. However, the Government does not provide information on the object or results of these intersectoral investigations.

The Committee further notes, from the Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP) 2019 that there has been a continued decrease in the number of children aged 7 to 17 years engaged in hazardous work, from 203,000 in 2015 to 193,000 in 2019 (representing 33.8 per cent of children in child labour, down from 34.2 per cent in 2015). While it takes note of the continued reduction in the number of children involved in hazardous work, the Committee notes that this number remains high. It therefore requests the Government to step up its efforts, including by strengthening the capacities of the labour inspectorate to ensure that children under the age of 18 years are not engaged in hazardous work. In this regard, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to promote collaboration between the labour inspectorate and other relevant stakeholders and to provide training to the labour inspectors to detect cases of children engaged in hazardous work. It also requests the Government to provide detailed information on: (i) the concrete measures taken in this regard; (ii) the results achieved; and (iii) the reasons for which the labour inspectorate is unable to effectively identify cases of hazardous child labour.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (a). Preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour. Access to free basic education. The Committee notes, from the Government’s report under Convention No. 138, that the implementation of the Child Labour Programme of Action includes: (1) provision of free basic education for all children; (2) implementation of “No School Fees” policies to many rural children and other vulnerable children; and (3) the continuation of other initiatives such as the provision of free meals to children through the school nutrition programme. The Committee notes with concern, from the SAYP 2019, that the overall proportion of children aged 7 to 15 years not attending school increased from 0.7 per cent in 2015 to 0.9 per cent in 2019. More specifically, there was an increase in boys not attending school (from 0.8 per cent in 2017 to 1.2 per cent in 2019), whereas the rate of girls not attending school showed no change over the same period (0.6 per cent in 2017 and 2019). The SAYP 2019 also highlights that the proportion of children who were most likely not to be attending school was observed among the coloured population, followed by the Indian/Asian and black African population group. Among the white population group, none of the children were reported to be out of school during this period.

The Committee further notes that the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC), in its concluding observations, was concerned: (1) that children are discriminated against in terms of equal and full access to basic protectional, educational and health services, with a disproportionate disadvantage for children living in rural areas and in poverty; (2) about the limited access to quality and inclusive education for children with disabilities, pregnant teenagers and adolescent mothers, asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, and children in disadvantaged socioeconomic situations; (3) about the high dropout rates at the end of the compulsory school phase, due to poverty, remoteness, disability or pregnancy; (4) the low quality of education, particularly in “No-Fee Schools”, and voluntary donations which contribute to school dropout; and (5) the insufficient availability of early childhood education and the lack of qualified staff (CRC/C/ZAF/CO/3-6, 11 March 2024, paragraphs 16 and 40). The Committee recalls that education is key in preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour, and therefore urges the Government to strengthen its efforts to facilitate access to free basic education for all children, particularly children from disadvantaged communities and in remote areas. It once again requests the Government to provide information on: (i) the concrete measures taken in this regard; and (ii) the results achieved, particularly with regard to increasing school enrolment, attendance and completion rates, both at primary and secondary levels, and reducing school drop-out rates as well as the number of out-of-school children. To the extent possible, this information should be disaggregated by age, sex and ethnic origin.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Child orphans of HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable children (OVCs). The Committee notes that the Government does not provide information on the measures taken, or results achieved, within the framework of the Isibindi initiative, a community-based child and youth care prevention and early intervention service that provides support to vulnerable children. The Committee notes that the National Strategic Plan on HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis 2017–2022 identifies “child orphans and vulnerable children” as a vulnerable population in need of customized and targeted interventions (Goal 3). Further, the Committee notes that, according to UNAIDS estimates of 2022 for South Africa, the number of child orphans under 17 years due to AIDS decreased to 720,000 (previously 1.4 million in 2019). The Committee welcomes the significant decrease in the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS and encourages the Government to pursue its efforts to ensure that those children are prevented from being engaged in the worst forms of child labour. In this regard, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on: (i) the concrete measures taken, including within the framework of the Isibindi initiative and the National Strategic Plan on HIV 2017–2022, to protect child orphans of HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable children from the worst forms of child labour; and (ii) the results achieved in terms of the number of orphans and vulnerable children withdrawn from the worst forms of child labour and rehabilitated into education or vocational training. To the extent possible, please disaggregate the data provided by sex and age.

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