Child Workers Dumped

Olavi Haikera

24 June 2011

Mururani — A group of 120 San children was dumped along the Rundu-Grootfontein Road early last month, allegedly by farmers from the Grootfontein district in the Otjozondjupa Region afraid they could be prosecuted for using child labour.

The children were dropped off some 40 kilometres south of the Mururani checkpoint.

It is suspected that the San children were abandoned by the farm owners who wanted to avoid prosecution, as the under-aged children were used as child labourers on the farms.

It could not be independently confirmed whether this was indeed the reason why the children were taken away from the farms.

Most of these San children were born on the farms in the Grootfontein area, and grew up there with their parents.

Coincidentally, the alleged dumping of the children took place at a time when the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare is conducting visits to farms countrywide to investigate rampant cases of child labour.

After spending two cold nights by the roadside, the children were rescued on 16 May by the former Mayor of Rundu, Gosbert Mandema, who availed his vehicle to transport them to a safe area.

The children were reportedly found hungry, and without shoes or any warm clothes.

Mandema immediately held a meeting with the leadership of Mururani Combined School, and they agreed to transport the children to the Mururani Community Hostel, situated some 130 kilometres south of Rundu where they are currently accommodated.

He informed this reporter that the San children were removed from those farms because some of the work they were required to do was labour-intensive and some of them were too young to do it.

According to him, the children were only paid with food rations and did not get any money for their work.

Kahenge constituency councillor Joseph Sikongo told Nampa yesterday that the San children, who are all between five and 15 years old, were dumped on the Rundu-Grootfontein road on 14 May.

Sikongo could not establish the identity of the person/s who dumped the children there.

The Kahenge councillor, who conducted his own investigations with the assistance of the Swapo-Party coordinator in the region, Vincent Likoro, said he found out that the San children are from about 78 different farms in Grootfontein district.

“It is a very sad story. I almost cried when I saw those children. You cannot believe that children could be treated that way, just like animals,” said Sikongo.

He noted that some children told him that they had been abused at the farms, as they were looking after livestock, mainly sheep and goats, without being paid, while their parents only worked for food without earning any salaries.

The Kahenge councillor called on the Ministry of Safety and Security and the Office of the Ombudsman to launch an investigation into the matter, in order to establish why the children were dumped along the road during winter.

He said the San children are currently in desperate need of sleeping tents, as some of them are sleeping on the floor because the hostel is unable to accommodate them all.

Sikongo proposed that the Government provides food relief to the San children on a monthly basis.

The chairperson of the Mururani Community Hostel, Annacleta Sikerete, told Nampa that there were 20 other San children in the school hostel before the last group came there.

“There are currently 306 children, including learners of the Mururani Combined School, in that hostel built to accommodate only 150 children,” she said.

The Office of the Prime Minister recently donated 122 bags of maize meal, 11 bales of blankets, 28 boxes of tinned fish, 81 mattresses, 10 boxes of cooking oil and a tent to the San children.

– Nampa.

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