Central SA
Hundreds of vacant social worker posts in the Free State─── TSHEHLA KOTELI 09:54 Wed, 12 Jul 2023
There are more than 300 social worker posts in Central South Africa still to be filled by the Department of Social Development.
Across the country, there are 1 279 vacant posts, while there are at least 9 000 unemployed social workers. The DA’s Bridget Masango said despite the severe shortage of employed social workers in the country, the department has failed to fill these vacant posts. The party called on the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, to urgently implement measures to address these shortages.
According to Zulu’s written parliamentary reply, the Free State has had posts vacant for the longest time. For eight years, there have been at least 101 posts vacant in the Free State, while the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have failed to fill their respective 151 and 107 vacancies for five and four years. In the Northern Cape, 158 vacant posts haven’t been filled for two years. The North West’s 178 posts have also remained vacant for two years. The reason for the failure to fill posts in most provinces is budget constraints. In the Eastern Cape, the reason given is a moratorium on the filling of posts due to a significant reduction of the budget.
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Masango stated that it is disturbing that 9 000 social workers remain unemployed and that this number has remained unchanged since last year when a similar question was asked. “The tragedy is this vast vacancy rate is to the detriment of millions of vulnerable people who are being deprived of essential services. Last year, the government stated that 5 000 social workers are needed to implement substance abuse legislation, and 3 000 for the Older Person’s Act,” she said.
It was previously reported that various provincial Departments of Social Development across the country have had their budgets cut by the national department. The budget of the Free State department was decreased by more than R77 million, and North West’s budget reduction was more than R300 million. The Northern Cape budget for the expanded Public Works programme allocation was cut by more than R9 million in the previous year to just over R5 million this year.
