Pretoria – Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has urged social workers to make positive values an essential part of social work practice.
Minister Dlamini made the appeal on Tuesday during the Social Work Indaba, currently taking place at Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, in Durban.
Speaking during the first day of the three-day Indaba, Minister Dlamini reminded social workers that the delivery of social services is a human rights imperative that must be undertaken through a positive value system guided by the South African Constitution.
“Social work, like all other sectors of South African society, comes from a background of racial segregation and values that made it possible for a large section of our society to be overlooked in the provision of social services.
“Part of the role of the social worker today is to ensure that the values that made social services a preserve of a few are uprooted and replaced with positive values that serve all citizens equally,” said Minister Dlamini.
Minister Dlamini has convened the Social Work Indaba in an attempt to better understand the challenges faced by front line practitioners, the social work practitioners and find ways to improve the delivery of social services in communities.
Social workers commended
While admitting to the challenges currently facing the profession, the Minister commended social workers for performing ‘exceptionally’ in some areas.
She singled out the performance of social workers in assisting the families of those who died in the Marikana tragedy in 2012 and recently, the support given to families of South Africans who lost their lives in the Synagogue Church of all Nations building collapse in Nigeria.
During both these incidents social workers provided psychosocial support to families of the deceased.
Extending welfare services
Minister Dlamini also stressed the importance of extending, not just social security to the needy, but also welfare services.
“We are working with an angry and scarred society as a result of the struggle for freedom; a society that was also hit hard by the HIV epidemic just when freedom had been obtained. As social workers, therefore, we have a critical role to play in helping society to heal through the provision of psychosocial services,” the Minister explained.
Speaking on the need for healing, Reverend Dr Bernard Richardson from the Dean of the historic Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel at the Howard University in Washington DC said social workers were healers.
“Pain has a memory and it is the duty of social workers to heal. In order to heal, social workers must know how to speak the truth while also rising above unnecessary clutter and concern themselves with the objective of saving lives,” said Reverend Dr Richardson.
The Howard University has partnered with the Department of Social Development on social work capacity building as well as curriculum development.
Ethics of care
Professor Viviene Taylor from the University of Cape Town also addressed social workers on ethics of care that should underpin their work.
She said social work must play a role in achieving social justice and transformation in South Africa.
South Africans, said Professor Taylor, are emerging from a brutal past of social injustice and social workers must be at the centre of transforming social welfare in order to make an impact on the lives of all South Africans.
The Social Work Indaba, which is attended by social workers from all nine provinces, is hosted under the theme “Revitalising social work practice in South Africa”.
It aims to develop proposals and interventions on how social workers can be assisted to contribute towards addressing these challenges as well as improve the way they deliver social work services. – SAnews.gov.za
