…As reluctant parents/guardians take children for piece works on farms
Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI-Sugarcane Farmer Associations recently expressed dissatisfaction with farmers who are still contracting piece work jobs to passersby rather than employing permanent workers which they believe is slowly spearheading child labour on sugarcane farms.
Some reluctant parents/guardians are accused of bringing on board children to help them work on the fields.
In an interview Commercial Sugarcane Farmers Association of Zimbabwe’s (CSFAZ) outspoken chairperson Addmore Hwarare said they have employed stiffer measures to deal with farmers who are facilitating child labour in farms as close to eight people have been covertly employed to monitor operations in Mkwasine, Hippo Valley and Triangle.
“We are working hand in glove with Tongaat Huletts in order to maintain a free child labour environment from the out grower farmers. Anyone found breaching that will never ever deliver his/her produce to the miller (Tongaat Huletts) as we will immediately report that farmer to the police.
“We used to have challenges from villagers in the surrounding communities who come with children in guise that they will be playing alone but end up being given a small portion to weed,” said Hwarare.
He also indicated that the complexity of the industry requires farmers to have permanent employees who will get used to the matrix of sugarcane production than just giving a passerby work to do on the farm.
“The sugar industry is complicated in a way that it requires skilled people to be handling day to day field work including weeding, irrigating and spraying of herbicides, so we always encourage farmers to have permanent employees on site. We also have agents, about eight of them who are moving around monitoring, in covert, on where children might be working in the fields,” he added.
Zimbabwe Sugarcane Development Association of Zimbabwe (ZSDA) chairperson Elisha Tamirepi also expressed the same sentiments that they are working flat out in encouraging farmers to desist on relying from child labour.
“We are telling them at every meeting about that. But on the same vein, there is a challenge that mothers are taking children to do piece jobs on sugarcane farms, where you find children playing with extra hoes,” said Tamirepi.
Coalition Against Child Labor in Zimbabwe (CACLAZ) National Director Pascal Masocha indicated that they are planning on engagements with farmers in order to conscientise them on the negative effects of child labour.
“We are planning on meetings to have joint awareness campaigns to conscientise farming communities on the negative effects of child labor,” said Masocha.
Retired Colonel Dennis Masomere, former chairperson of Mkwasine Sugarcane Farmers Association said they worked flat out against the practice during his time at the association to the extent of printing T-shirts as part of advocacy.
“The subject was very much alive during my time to the extent of printing T-shirts as a campaign strategy,” said Masomere.
Though many sugarcane farmers benefitted from the Land Reform Programme some decades ago, they are still failing to transform farming into a business in order to maximize yields through having permanently recognized farm workers but rather hire villagers from surrounding areas with piece works which end up spearheading child labour.
With more than 51 400 hectares of land in the Lowveld under sugarcane farming, Tongaat Hulett currently holds an approximate of 26 986 hectares and close to 15 000 permanent employees who work on its fields as well as sugarcane mills, while approximately 1 200 small holder farmers operate around 20 414 hectares and employing less than 2 000 permanent employees as they mostly rely on piece job seekers who they pay with sugar and a few dollars.
