Minister of Social Development Sisisi Tolashe. Picture: Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
SOCIAL Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe has acknowledged that the number of social workers employed by the government was not enough to respond to the social ills experienced in the country.
Tolashe said the National Treasury has indicated that there was no funding allocation budgeted to fund the employment of social workers despite the ever-increasing pervasive social ills in the country.
“Although there are ongoing engagements between the two departments to find a solution on how funding can be made available to fund the employment of social workers in the country, it is a reality that these pervasive social ills increase rapidly daily.
“It is evident that the numbers of social workers on the ground are not enough to respond seamlessly to the scourge and challenges faced by communities,” she said.
Tolashe made the statement when she was replying to parliamentary questions from DA MP Bridget Masango, who asked about the reasons her department has not approached the National Treasury to seek funding to fill all the vacant social worker posts and thereby deal with the severe shortage of social workers.
Tolashe said her department has approached the National Treasury on numerous occasions and has since submitted a funding bid to request funding allocation for the employment of social workers in the sector.
“The bid was costed and is estimated to cost around R9 billion over the next five years to employ 31 744 to realise the National Development Plan Vision 2030 goal of employing 55 000 social service professionals by 2030. This is translated to cost approximately R1.8 billion per annum.”
Tolashe said the government currently employed 23 561 social service professionals, including social workers.
Masango had also enquired whether social workers were classified as frontline service providers and about efforts she has made to engage the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation to declare social workers as frontline workers to address the severe shortage in the sector.
According to Tolashe, former social development minister Lindiwe Zulu requested the Minister of Employment and Labour in March 2020 to include social service professionals in the list of persons providing essential services.
She said social workers were now one of the categories of social service professionals classified as frontline social providers based on the guidelines published in the government gazette regarding Covid-19 because they performed essential services.
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