There is power in Africa uniting and applying African solutions to African problems. That is according to the President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Zingiswa Losi.
Speaking to the SABC News at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, Losi has said has urged Africa to realise the power of unity.
“Africa has always been seen as one continent that doesn’t seem to progress but agrees on how the world should look like. And at times, you would realise that the reason we seem not to move forward in addressing our own issues, is because we have lost our own identity, as who we are as African people. We seem to think South Africa is on its own and the rest of Africa and the whole continent operates differently and as a result, we don’t have African solutions to African problems,” she says.
“Africa needs to realise the power of being united,” Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi saying Africa needs to stop waiting for Europe to prescribe solutions to its African problems. #EndChildLabour #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/nqhoH94wub
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) May 16, 2022
Losi was speaking after a high panel discussion dedicated to exploring the overall situation of child labour in the context of deficits in decent work and youth employment, identifying the most pressing challenges that need to be addressed at a global level, and laying out priorities for the global community for the next three years leading toward 2025.
In a panel that comprised Minister of Employment and Labour, Thula Nxesi South Africa, Chairperson of the Senate, Chairperson of the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Combating Trafficking and Forced Labor, Tanzila Narbayeva, European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, James Quincey, Chair of Alliance 8.7, French Government representative to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Governing Body Anousheh Karvar.
High level panel discussion to explore the overall situation of child labour in the context of deficits in decent work and youth employment, and to lay out priorities for the global community for the next three years leading toward 2025 under way. #SABCNews #EndChildLabour pic.twitter.com/ujz5tnj9rF
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) May 16, 2022
Losi says it is sad that while Africa is poor and afflicted the worst by some of the global issues predicaments with child labour just being one, Europe’s economies are built “on the backbone of the African people.”
“(Africans) have been used as slaves in the past. They continue to migrate now because of the wars that are taking place in Africa to go to Europe. They get to be welcomed. We don’t see xenophobic tendencies in Europe because they understand the value of the African man and woman in building their own economies, including taking care of their children, and running their households, but in Africa, we think of each other differently. We don’t see the value of one Africa migrating to the next region and until we realise the importance of us being united and how we can shape and change the African we will never be able to solve our own problems.”
“I blame Africa,” – Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee saying Africa has the resources and minerals that are not working for the people of Africa and that until Africa reclaims those resources the fight to #endchildlabour may never be won. #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/gnFAtM8rEL
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) May 15, 2022
Africa has the largest number of child labourers, with ILO estimating that 72.1 million African children are estimated to be in child labour, while Saulos Klaus Chilima, Deputy President of the Republic of Malawi says two million children are in child labour in Malawi.
Urpilainen says child labour needs to be brought back to the political agenda and must never be confined to only to forums like the conference underway in Durban.
“It’s a complex problem with many root causes. But there are solutions and we are committed to finding those solutions … We have to put child labour back to the political agenda.”
Ryder has urged countries to take ownership of their problems in their respective countries.
“We know what works. We do in a big sense, but the people who know the specifics are at a national level.”
The conference continues in at the Durban International Convention Centre where delegates from around the world have gathered to share good practices and to push for accelerated action toward the elimination of child labour as well as to assess progress made towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) regarding child labour.
