Grape company rejects child labour allegations

A GRAPE company at the Hardap Irrigation Scheme outside Mariental has denied an allegation about using child labour in the sorting and packaging of grapes during last month’s harvest.

A 15-year-old girl claimed that she and about 14 other children were employed at Riaan De Klerk Farming to sort and package grapes at a daily wage of N$30 and an overtime rate of N$50 an hour. The girl further claimed that they were locked up in a storage facility and sometimes were made to work to from 07h00 up to 05h00 the next day.’We’re only given a half-hour break between 10h00 and 11h30 and again 13h00 to 13h30. We’re forced to work behind locked doors after the breaks. No one is even allowed to go to the toilet. Because of this, some of the children were wetting their pants,’ the girl said. The girl also claimed that she and some other children only received half of her wages when they quit the job. Community activist Albertus Gomachab said two of his daughters, aged 17 and 20, were employed at Riaan De Klerk Farming last month. ‘I saw with my own eyes that the company was using child labour,’ Gomachab claimed. Approached for comment yesterday, the company’s owner referred The Namibian to a manager dealing with recruitments. The manager, Japie Olivier, described the allegations as lies. ‘The one spreading the story is lying,’ said Olivier. He admitted that he had employed some staff who could not provide him with identity documents. ‘Some of them begged for employment, although they had no personal documents in their possession. On their assurance that they’re not underage, I hired some of them,’ said Olivier. ‘If one of them claims that he or she was underage, then they lied to me to be employed at company,’ he added. Olivier admitted that the company’s staff had to work long hours last month, but denied claims of them working until the next morning.’How could I have allowed people to work until the next morning and again force them to resume duties after a few hours’ rest,’ Olivier asked.