Child Labour Prohibition — Amendments

Amendment	Year	Description	Impact
Act 35 of 2016	2016	The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 replaced section 3 with a general prohibition on employing or permitting a child to work in any occupation or process. It expressly retained conditioned exceptions for helping family or a family enterprise outside school hours or during vacations, excluding scheduled hazardous work, and for specified entertainment or sports work other than circus work. The latter is subject to prescribed safeguards and must not affect school education. The amendment separately defined adolescents as persons aged fourteen to below eighteen and prohibited their work in scheduled hazardous occupations and processes.	Age, activity and conditions must be examined together. The rule cannot accurately be summarised as either an exception-free ban on all child activity or unrestricted permission for family employment. Schooling is central to the exceptions, while adolescents have a different prohibition. A sound answer identifies the relevant category before discussing inspection, rescue and rehabilitation; it does not treat every person under eighteen as governed by an identical employment rule.