V. The rights of children living on commercial farms

South Africa's rural economy has been based on racial inequalities since white settlers first arrived in the Cape.At the time of the first post-apartheid elections in 1994, approximately 60,000 white farmers and the National Party government owned 87 percent of the land.[148]The African majority, which constitutes 75 percent of the population, had access to less than 13 percent of land, mostly in the ten "homelands" or "self-governing territories," created for Africans along cultural and linguistic lines.The forced removal of Africans from their traditionally owned land through racially-motivated laws in turn created a reserve of cheap labour.Working on white-owned commercial farms gave Africans their only opportunity to gain access to land in viable commercial farming areas, through relationships of sharecropping or labor tenancy (by which Africans could farm on a small scale and keep livestock on land allocated to them, provided they also worked for agreed periods for the land owner).[149]Progressively, however, the Apartheid government attempted to prevent Africans from farming in their own right and to force them into cash employment only.

The power imbalance created by past policies continues today and has exposed farmworkers to exploitation and abuse in relation to working conditions, wages and land tenure.Farmworkers are reluctant to report abuses and unlawful evictions for fear of reprisals.Immigrant workers, some illegally employed, have also been exposed to various forms of abuse at the hands of farm owners.[150]In addition, there are few alternative employment opportunities in rural areas, including the former homelands, which are also largely deprived of municipal services and support systems.

Impact of insecure labor and land tenure on children's education

The rights of children living on commercial farms are directly affected by the security of tenure of their parents, whether they are farmworkers working for a cash wage or labor tenants, partly paid by the right to grow their own crops.Since 1994, the government has introduced legislation, aimed at improving security of tenure on commercial farms, including the Extension of Security of Tenure Act of 1997 and the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act of 1996.[151]The intention of both laws is to prevent arbitrary eviction.Despite these laws, actual or threatened evictions have a negative impact on children and their education.For example, a family was evicted from a farm on which LianasCombinedSchool is situated in Magoebaskloof, LimpopoProvince at the end of September 2003.[152]The mother sought accommodation for her two children at a nearby farm, which is also served by LianasCombinedSchool, so that they could continue to attend the farm school.The farm owner reportedly removed the children from LianasCombinedSchool because of the eviction; thereby denying them access to an education.[153]

Some teachers interviewed by Human Rights Watch attributed irregular school attendance to insecure employment of parentsparticularly in the case of non-nationals.At OvervlaktePrimary School in Musina, LimpopoProvince, the teacher remarked that the enrollment at the school had dropped from thirty in January 2003 to twenty-four in June of the same year.[154] The teacher noted that there were a number of additional children, predominantly of Zimbabwean origin and living on the farm, who were not attending school at all.

Farmworkers often do not participate actively on school governing boards as they do not want to lose working hours[155] In these cases, the school governing boards, of which farmworkers are members, fail to meet regularly and guide management of schools.In some cases, farmworkers are prevented from attending meetings during a school week as it "interferes with work."[156]

Child labor

The employment of children below the age of fifteen has been prohibited since 1997 by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997.[157]In addition, the law makes it an offence for a third party to assist an employer to use child labor.[158]The act permits the employment of children between fifteen and seventeen who are no longer subject to compulsory education.[159] Such employment should not "[b]e inappropriate for the child's age" and should not put at risk the child's "[w]ellbeing, education, physical or mental health or spiritual, moral or social development."[160]The onus rests on the employer to prove that he/she reasonably believed at the time of employment that the child was not below fifteen years.[161]

Teachers informed Human Rights Watch researchers of the continued use of children between fourteen and eighteen on some farms, which prevented children from completing their schooling.Teachers in Hazyview in MpumalangaProvince blamed low enrollment and poor attendance on labor being an attractive option for children.[162] The teacher at Wallop farm school alleged that boys under the age of seventeen sought employment on a neighboring farm in the Free StateProvince.[163]Whether the farm owner was aware that some of the boys fell under the permitted minimum age of employment was not clear.The principal informed Human Rights Watch researchers that the matter had been raised with the authorities.In a follow-up call to the regional department of labor office on June 30, 2003, Human Rights Watch was told that an inspection of these allegations on the farm was scheduled.[164]

Pruning trees and lifting logs onto lorries in the Haenertsberg area in LimpopoProvince drew children between fourteen and eighteen out of school.[165] A teacher at Wolksberg Farm School, which is located in the Haenertsberg forests, argued that the lack of a secondary school nearby and insufficient funds to enroll at a secondary school forty kilometers away in GaMolepo-the nearest village-were contributing factors for children to work on farms.

Access to basic nutrition for children

One of the first initiatives of the new government in 1994 was to introduce the Primary School Nutrition Program to encourage enrollment and school attendance in poor communities, as one of the presidential lead projects of the Reconstruction and Development Program.[166]The Department of Health is presently administering the feeding scheme.[167] The 2003 allocation to schools in designated areas is calculated on R1.07 (U.S. $0.15) per learner per day.The government aims to provide lunches to all learners attending the poorest schools by 2004.Those individual learners who do not attend a school within this category and yet qualify for the welfare poverty grant may receive a state-subsidized meal.In either case, the school bears the responsibility to find a food supplier and to ensure that the government pays the supplier.This however places an administrative burden on poorly resourced schools such as a number of those on commercial farms.Among the problems encountered during this research was non-delivery of food by the supplier.The department has acknowledged that in some cases suppliers have failed to deliver due to non-payment by the state.[168]

The administration of the scheme has been sporadic at farm schools.Most schools visited provide one cooked meal a day through the feeding scheme.At some schools, however, there have been problems with the scheme.At Wallop Farm School, Free State Province, the feeding scheme was suspended in 1999 and since then the school has been applying for food assistance with no result at the time of writing.[169] In other cases, the delivery of food has been irregular.Teachers at Petrushoop Intermediate School, Free State Province, complained that the feeding scheme was unreliable.[170]From January to April 2003 there was no food delivery.After some relief, food delivery was interrupted again from May 18 to June 23, 2003.[171]The principal at Doreen-BridgeCombinedSchool informed Human Rights Watch researchers that the school was unable to provide meals due to a lack of funds.[172]The feeding scheme at the school was suspended in November 2002 and resumed again in June 2003.Human Rights Watch researchers were informed that for some learners the food provided at school is the only meal for the day.

Access to social assistance for children

As part of South Africa's effort to give effect to children's rights, vulnerable groups, including children from poor rural households, have been identified as eligible for government grants. Children under the age of nine are eligible for a monthly grant of R160 (U.S. $23) per child.[173]The age limit is being raised progressively to fourteen years by 2005.[174] At present, the grant applies to South African citizens only.[175]In impoverished rural communities with limited financial resources, parents are less inclined to send their children to school because of school fees and related costs such as, uniforms and shoes, and this grant may assist them to do so.

In one case in MpumalangaProvince, a single mother was supporting eight children between five and seventeen years of age on a farmworkers' wages.None of her children, whom Human Rights Watch researchers spoke to, were enrolled at a school in the area where they were living.Their mother told Human Rights Watch that she could not afford to send her children to school.Her children did not have birth certificates and so could not access the child support grant; and she was also unaware of the existence of the government financial support.[176]The added financial assistance can potentially encourage parents to send children to school.The social worker responsible for the Hazyview area confirmed that a number of farmworkers in the area have neither identity documents nor birth certificates for their children[177] A young woman told Human Rights Watch that she dropped out of Overvlakte Primary School, Limpopo Province in 1994 after completing grade four in search of work on the farm since her parents could no longer afford to send her to school.[178]

Small schools

Small schools of learners of fifty or less are found predominantly among farm schools.[179] This results in the teaching of multiple grades and in some cases one-teacher schools.As of 2000, approximately 20 percent of farm schools were one-teacher schools.[180]All schools visited had more than one grade in a class either due to insufficient classrooms or due to too few learners per grade and a limited number of teachers.In general, the latter situation is common at farm schools.

The instructor at one-teacher schools is both a teacher and principal.Problems arise where a teacher has to attend courses either on skills or curriculum developments.This effectively means that the school is shut for the day and the children are deprived of an education.This is the case at Cambridge Primary School, Free State Province where the teacher and principal are one.When the teacher was away attending courses, the school was shut for the time that she was away.[181]At ItemogelengSchool, also in the Free StateProvince, it was reported that the school was shut for two months when the only teacher took ill.[182]The teacher at a farm school in the Free StateProvince reportedly stated that she was unable to apply new teaching methods in her multiple grade class.[183] The teacher at KhotsoPulaPrimary School, which was visited by Human Rights Watch researchers, raised similar concerns.Teachers at these schools have to weigh the benefits of attending courses, which introduce new teaching methods and curriculum developments, and which may positively affect the quality of education, against the drawback of shutting the schools which deprive children of an education during their absence.

The development of alternative teaching methods to enhance learning in multi-grade classes is important.Substitute teaching should be considered at one-teacher schools to minimize the interruption of the teaching program.

School fees and uniforms

The national Department of Education recently published its policy on school funding, which states that it does not support the total elimination of school fees.[184] The Schools Act does, however, allow for exemptions where a parent is unable to pay the fees.[185]In the main, farm schools are willing to enroll children even though they are unable to meet the school fees.At OvervlaktePrimary School, LimpopoProvince, none of the children pay school fees.[186]At the schools visited, Human Rights Watch found that school fees range from R5 (U.S. $0.71) to R90 (U.S. $13) per year.Where parents were unable to pay school fees, their children were granted exemptions.

A number of parents whose children are enrolled at Westminster Farm School, Free State Province, stated that since March 2003 [the commencement of the minimum wage regulation] most of them are finding it difficult to meet the financial demands such as school fees, uniforms, and other educational materials.[187]This is largely because of evictions at Eastry Farm in March 2003, where the farm school was shut, and as a result most of those children have since moved to WestminsterFarmSchool.The parents of these children lost their permanent jobs resulting in the loss of regular income.While these parents would ordinarily qualify for a school fees exemption, they were not aware of such an exemption for indigent parents, underlying the need for information campaigns to raise awareness in rural areas on the existence of social assistance programs.

A government policy issued in 2003 suggests a support for the retention of school uniforms.[188] Generally, teachers at farm schools on their own initiative have not insisted that children wear school uniforms in light of the hardships faced by their farmworker parents.Human Rights Watch researchers came across only one case where a school-going child was excluded for not wearing the requisite school uniform.The mother of a girl enrolled at Westminster Primary School, Free State Province, said that her child had been expelled in March 2003 because she did not wear a school uniform.[189]It was only after she pleaded with the teachers that the child was re-admitted.

Limited secondary education

Education in South Africa is compulsory between the ages of seven and fifteen which includes the first two years of secondary education.[190]However, according to the census conducted in 2001, only 30.8 percent of people of twenty years and above have some secondary education.The lowest rates are in Limpopo (26.1%) and in Mpumalanga (26.6%).Both provinces are largely rural.Limited access to secondary schools in rural areas is likely to be a factor in these figures.

The inaccessibility of secondary schooling within the vicinity of a primary school severely hampers the opportunities of learners who have completed their primary school education.Human Rights Watch researchers discovered that children sacrifice personal safety by living with other school children in shantytowns in order to be near a secondary school. The principal of LianasCombinedSchool remarked that children fail to complete their schooling, as there is no accessible secondary school nearby.[191]The additional costs for a school-going child such as food, clothing, and transport are a disincentive to send a child to secondary school.

A teacher at KaMehlwanePrimary School, which has 120 learners, was in favor of a secondary school in the area.Parents could not afford the school fees and living costs should children proceed to a secondary school in Block C township, in a former homeland area near Komatipoort along the Mozambican and South African borders some thirty kilometers from the farm where the primary school is located.[192]

Themba, a seventeen-year-old boy,[193] who completed primary school at KaMehlwane in 2001, told Human Rights Watch he was unable to enroll at a secondary school about thirty kilometers away from the farm where he lived because he was unable to meet the school fees and the additional costs including transport.He so desperately wanted an education, that with his earnings from seasonal mango pickings on nearby farms, he had purchased school shoes, two white shirts and black trousers (a basic school uniform).

A grade-nine schoolgirl enrolled at Doreen-BridgeCombinedSchool, LimpopoProvince, expressed concern that she was unable to continue her education through to grade twelve.[194] The principal told Human Rights Watch that the failure of the school to be extended beyond grade nine was due to an intransigent farm owner.[195]The provincial department of education allegedly had issued a directive for the construction of additional classrooms, yet no construction had begun.The landowner told Human Rights Watch that he was not prepared to have the school extended to cater for secondary level education, as the school began as and should remain a primary school.[196]However, it is the farm owner's contention that it is not his duty to fulfill a role that is essentially government's (that is the provision of education).According to him, an agreement with the provincial department of education has not been concluded because of this dispute.The school's principal believed that the secondary school in Musina, approximately forty kilometers from the farm, was unsatisfactory as the transport, rent, and living costs are beyond the reach of most parents of these children.Furthermore, the principal cited exposure to victimization as a further threat to security for children who were living away from their parents or guardians.Blame has been directed towards both the farm owner and the provincial department of education for failing to meet their obligations.

Teachers at schools within a sixty-kilometer radius from Smithfield were concerned that the lack of a secondary school nearby limited options for learners.[197] Children who did not have relatives in Smithfield, the town having the nearest secondary school, had to resort to living in squalid conditions in a nearby shantytown where rental for a makeshift house cost R50 (U.S. $7) per month.[198]Human Rights Watch researchers were told that the quarters were in most cases shared with other learners.The highest level of education offered at KhotsoPulaPrimary School is grade five, while grade four is the highest level offered at MontaguFarmSchool.Learners who complete their primary schooling would logically enroll at a secondary school at the town of Smithfield.