The social work “Indaba” is an insult to the Profession

The Current Social Work Indaba that is taking place in Durban is nothing but another platform to rhetoric about the importance of social workers and how they should be respected as the profession is important or should I say as the minister say’s the importance of the profession “cannot be over-stressed”. The reason why this amounts to nothing but rhetoric is because as Social workers, academics, student social workers and other fields of specialization are well informed about the importance of the profession and day to day challenges that social workers face. For example Journal of Social Development in Africa (1996) correctly noted that Compared to other helping professions like medicine, psychiatry and nursing, social work is one profession that workers are underpaid and neglected. This observation clearly tells us that the challenges social workers are facing today are historically for example “low salary” if this matter has been noted since 1996 what on earth that makes 1200 delegates in 2015 think that something is going to change without being radically. 

From the above, The social work Indaba should look at 3 things that are important and change the theme to “providing more resources to social workers and increasing the salary to better the service to our people” . With regard to the 3 things that should be discussed is the issue of:

1.      Increasing salary

2.      Providing more resources (cars, machines etc.)

3.      Safety

The theme that I have proposed seeks to do justice and address the challenges holistically as it say that by injecting more resources and increasing the salary of social workers you will allow social service to be rendered to the people of this country as it is stated in various Social Development policy papers. Within the same vein the minister bold says that “she also discovered that social workers also had their own struggles, which affected their work. Issues such as low pay, and a lack of resources and support to do their jobs effectively” to unpack the statement or ‘discovery channel” of the minister. One it’s true that Social workers are underpaid hence I propose that the first point on the Agenda is to increase the salary of social workers stop noting and discovering that social workers are exploited as the department.

Furthermore lack of resources is another point that should be on the Agenda. Many service centers operate using two or one car to do Home Visits or to go to court for an example. That alone holds at ransom the profession to deliver service to people in need of services. And it should be noted that not only DSD have this issues even Health departments where social workers are based the challenges are the same. NGOs also face similar challenges discuss such issues 1200 delegates in ICC. It is the well-known fact that the conditions that Social Workers operate upon are dangerous and it puts their lives in danger in particular those that normally do removals of children’s or deal with abuse matters. Again delegates should propose that social workers must start to get danger allowances. Because some clients can get mad or physically attack social workers so the allowance will assist when it comes to that.

After doing the entire above things minister and the delegates that’s when we can start to ask or adopt your theme: “Revitalising social work practice in South Africa”. And under this theme minister we can look at respect, love for the profession, educational development for social workers, ethics, culture and practice.

 For now the only way you can revitalize the profession is to: Increasing salary, providing more resources (cars, machines etc.) and safety.