In this coming year, as South Africa gears up to host the 2022 Global Conference on Child Labour, the challenge of continuing to bring its policies and legislation increasingly in line with its international obligations and the demands of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, remains a priority.

There is also a need for the political will to translate those commitments into prosecutions where necessary, and for effective practical prohibitions and prevention strategies.

All policy considerations in this area should include the situation of migrant child labourers as a matter of course. This must involve a more sustained and robust engagement with civil society, which at present carries a large part of the burden in assisting these vulnerable children.

Until these intertwined pathologies involving vulnerable children are truly eradicated, it will remain a blot on the copybook of a country which prides itself on a heightened sensitivity and commitment to human rights.

Paper by CPLO