Most of Kalembo’s kinsmen later joined him after his communication with them that he was now living a better life, as compared to their lives back home. However, Kalembo was not the first from Malawi to migrate to Zimbabwe but other foreign nationals from other neighbouring countries had also settled in the Southern African country.

“I came here in 1986 after realizing that life was now unbearable back home where we had to rely on begging to feed the family. My fellow countrymen latter followed when I told them that life here in Zimbabwe was better than the one we where leading back in Malawi,” said Kalembo.

While most of the foreign nationals felt at home on these farms as farm labourers, most of them had no positive identification particulars like the national identity documents as they were not registered through the Registrar of Births and Deaths, where Zimbabweans obtain their identity documents. This has resulted in them failing to acquire identity documents which are essential when acquiring formal education and employment.

Despite having been a happy farm community at Major Brown farm in Glendale, about 70 km North of the capital Harare, some very sad faces could easily be noticed on the residents’ faces when this writer visited the place.

Asked to explain their ordeal, most former farm workers pointed out to the land redistribution which was radically led by Zanu (PF) and war veterans as the agents to their demise as the current new black farmers who took over from the commercial white farmers do no pay them reasonably after working for them.

Little wage

“We used to send our kids to school from money earned from these farms but with the new black farmers, it is totally impossible to send them to school because they pay as little a dollar for a day’s work,” said another farm worker at Major Brown.

One social analyst Dr Abel Kasi described the current scenario facing farm labourers as a bid by the new farmers to breed cheap farm labour through paying slave wages that will not allow them to send their children to school.

“In my own view these new farmers have realized that if the farm labourers send their children to school they will eventually run out of labour so they want keep the farm labourers and their children uneducated so that there is a constant supply of labour,” said Kasi.

However, Dr Kasi’s analysis was somewhat a reflection of the situation on the ground as the farm labourers’ children of school going age are also actively working on the farms owned by the new farmers in a bid to sustain themselves as they cannot be sent to school. This is however a violation of the children’s rights as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the rights of the Child in which Zimbabwe is signatory.

In an interview with Africanews.com, thirteen-year-old Maria Saini who went only up to grade three said she had to help her parents provide for their family given that the money they receive from the farmers is not enough.

“If I work for one month, I will get twenty five dollars while both my parents will get $30 each on the grounds that they are adults. This is however not enough to take care of our food, clothing, and school among other essentials,” said Maria.

Child labour

Labor and social services Minister however indicated that the practice of child labor was against the laws of Zimbabwe as well as some other regional and international conventions to which the country is signatory.

“It is against the laws of this country to have a child who is less than 18 years of age going to work, it amounts to child labour and it is not acceptable here in Zimbabwe,” she said.

The spokesperson of the country’s General Agricultural Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), Tapiwa Zivira said the practice of allowing children to work is against their rights. He also distanced his organization from the practice.

“GAPWUZ observes the law and values children and their rights as such it is very much against the practice of child labour and none of them form part of our membership,” he said.

“We are also part of the Coalition Against Child Labour in Zimbabwe (CACLAZ) which seeks to end child labour by raising awareness and engaging in projects aimed at bringing children back to school,” said Zivira.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has set the minimum age limit for anyone to be admitted into the employment industry at 18 years of age which is also Zimbabwe’s legal age of majority.