Dumped social workers: DA delivers memorandum to Social Development Department
22 January 2015
Today, in a memorandum delivered to the Pretoria head office of the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, the DA highlighted the plight of more than 2 500 social workers, who were granted bursaries and are contractually owed jobs by the Department of Social Development (DSD) upon the completion of their training but whose jobs have not materialised.
The DA has called on Minister Dlamini to urgently take action to ensure the social workers are employed so that they can take the jobs they deserve and their rightful place in ensuring protection for vulnerable South Africans.
Bridget Masango MP, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development was joined by DA Deputy Shadow Ministers, Lindy Wilson MP and Karen de Kock MP, in handing over the memorandum.
By reneging on their contract, the department has effectively dumped these graduates, leaving them jobless, when they have worked hard to attain their qualifications – and when they potentially have so much to offer the country in terms of much-needed skills.
The DA has received numerous letters from devastated graduates, who say they are desperate to work. Most affected are graduates from Limpopo, KZN and the Eastern Cape.
The DSD promised jobs to students who successfully completed their degrees through government bursaries for social work related studies. The students have upheld their end of the deal while the DSD, in its replies to a DA parliamentary question, claimed that: “Some of the provinces, particularly those with big numbers of social work graduates trained have, since 2011, started to experience challenges of continuing to absorb the social work graduates into employment due to budgetary constraints.”
This falls far short of the commitment that the DSD made and shows extremely poor planning by Minister Dlamini. In shutting these 2 504 students out of employment, the department will deprive South African communities of their desperately needed services.
The DA believes every South African who is in a vulnerable situation should have access to social workers to assist with interventions.
The levels of vulnerability in SA are dangerously high due to a range of factors, including the economy, the cost of living and the drought. The poor are growing in numbers and becoming more reliant on support on an already overburdened SA grants system. This means there is a great need for social workers to be effectively deployed throughout SA. Yet there is a severe shortage of social workers.
The National Development Plan states that some 60 000 welfare service practitioners will be needed by 2030 to meet South Africa’s social welfare needs. However, in October 2014, the Minister advised that there were only 17 441 operational social workers in the country, of whom 14 354 were employed by the government.
This means the country is currently short of 42 500 social workers and the department would need to employ 2837 social workers every year from 2015 to 2030.
The question remains: despite acknowledging that social workers are overburdened, and despite the contractual obligations entered into with the graduates the department has failed to absorb the social workers.
Yet the department continues to increase its budget for the ineffective National Development Agency and the unstable South African Social Services Agency (SASSA).
In the memorandum, the DA called on the DSD to urgently re-align its mandate of ensuring protection for vulnerable South Africans. We also called on the Minister to take action to ensure that social workers are urgently employed to ensure that the victims of abuse have access to essential services and social assistance.
In line with the DA’s jobs campaign for the month of January, we will continue to give a voice to the unemployed and to communicate our plan to create jobs.
We will also continue to submit questions on the department’s failure to absorb these social workers and its consequent failure to see to the needs of thousands of vulnerable South Africans.
Statement issued by Bridget Masango MP, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 22 January 2016
