Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development has laid bare its financial struggles emanating from “significant budget cuts”, limiting its capacity to fill essential posts.
This was revealed in a written KZN Legislature reply by Social Development MEC Mbali Shinga to the DA KZN Spokesperson on Social Development, Shontel de Boer.
De Boer had written to Shinga to find out the department’s stand on the employment challenges confronting the social work sector. De Boer had received an email from unemployed social work graduates on October 22, 2024, detailing grievances and demanding urgent governmental intervention.
In an email, a representative of the Unemployed Social Workers, Zola Madondo highlighted that the department ceased the unilateral absorption of scholarship recipients into its ranks in 2014.
This policy shift aimed to create a level playing field for both scholarship and self-funded graduates competing for advertised positions, ensuring a merit-based recruitment process that benefits the broader sector.
Madondo said there was a pressing need for clarity on the employment criteria and recruitment processes for social work. She also said out of 2000 unemployed graduates, five posts were recently advertised by the department.
In response, the department said it had been experiencing financial difficulties due to budget cuts.
“Despite submitting budget proposals along with other provinces, we have yet to secure additional funding from the National Treasury,” Shinga said in a written reply.
Addressing the specific concerns raised by social work graduates, Shinga provided a comprehensive breakdown of the current strategies implemented to alleviate unemployment in the sector.
She said since the discontinuation of unilateral absorption in 2014, the DSD no longer permits the automatic absorption of scholarship graduates, allowing for an equitable competitive process.
On internship opportunities, she said the department has launched various internship initiatives, including a partnership with WITS Health and the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), to provide valuable workplace experience to graduates. This includes recruiting 480 social work interns during the 2020/2021 financial year and 535 interns during the flood disasters of 2022/2023.
On the funding challenges, she said: the department has been struggling under significant budget cuts, limiting its capacity to fill essential posts. Despite submitting budget proposals along with other provinces, they have yet to secure additional funding from the National Treasury.
On critical posts approval, she said recently, the department received approval to fill 91 critical posts currently occupied by temporary contract workers, offering hope for stability as these contracts end in January 2025.
Shinga strongly denied allegations claiming that the department received a substantial allocation of R6.1 billion, labelling these claims as misleading to the public.
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