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BusinessLive reports that about 9‚000 social work graduates in SA are unemployed due to “budget constraints”, but according to social development minister Lindiwe Zulu‚ there are 1‚279 vacant social worker positions in the provinces.
She was replying to parliamentary questions by DA MP Bridget Masango‚ who asked about the vacant posts for social workers in each province and how long they had been vacant. Masango also asked why the posts were not filled and about the number of unemployed social workers in the country. According to Zulu‚ the longest period for vacant posts was eight years in the Free State‚ with 101 vacant posts. The Eastern Cape has 151 vacant posts spanning more than five years because of a “moratorium on filling posts (2019-Sept 2022) due to a significant reduction of compensation of employee budget”. Gauteng led with the highest number of vacant posts at 365‚ followed by the North West with 178 and the Northern Cape with 158. KwaZulu-Natal has 107 vacant posts‚ the Western Cape 103‚ Mpumalanga 72 and Limpopo 44. Zulu said the reason for the vacancies was “budget constraints due to a significant reduction in the compensation of employees over the medium-term expenditure framework period”. Masango called on Zulu to implement measures to fill the vacant positions and address shortages. “What is particularly disturbing is 9‚000 social workers remain unemployed and this number has remained unchanged since last year, when a similar question was asked‚” Masango said.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Unathi Nkanjeni at BusinessLive
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