IPC’s Lutuhezi calls for urgent action against child labour in Namibia

Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) parliamentarian Lilian Lutuhezi has called for measures to stop the exploitation of children as labourers on farms, at villages, and in homes as domestic workers or babysitters.

This comes after the police recently arrested a pensioner (62), who employed an Angolan girl (16) as a domestic worker without paying her at Oshiyagaya village in the Oshikoto region. The pensioner allegedly promised to pay the girl N$500 a month.

Lutuhezi raised the issue in her notice of questions to minister of gender equality and child welfare Emma Kantema in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“The painful truth is that this may only be the tip of the iceberg. Across Namibia, children, especially from vulnerable communities such as the San, and also from neighbouring countries like Angola and Zambia, are being exploited,” she said.

She said some minors are being used as cheap labour on farms and in villages where they herd cattle and goats or work in the fields, adding others are brought into homes where they work as domestic workers or babysitters at a very young age.

Such practices treat children as workers rather than children who deserve care, protection, and education.

Lutuhezi said this goes directly against the Child Care and Protection Act of 2015 which prohibits the exploitation, neglect, and abuse of children.

“It is also inconsistent with Namibia’s commitments under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Geneva Convention, which require
states to ensure every child is protected from exploitation, violence and degrading treatment,” she said.

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