The Legal SA

55 000 Social Workers By 2030

08:05am, Friday 070/07/23, Johannesburg.

The government of South Africa says that it will spend over R9-billion to recruit 55 000 fully trained and qualified social workers by the year 2030.

This was announced by Social Development Minister, Honourable Lindiwe Zulu in her written parliamentary reply to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

The IFP had asked Minister Zulu about her department's plans to achieve the set targets to employ more social workers.

IFP Member of Parliament Liezl van der Merwe put it to Zulu that it is absolutely unacceptable that thousands of social workers that have been trained by the state are sitting at home when their skills and services are desperately needed in communities to protect vulnerable children in rural areas in particular.

Liezl van der Merwe says that the government of South Africa needs to expedite the implementation of cabinets resolution that was taken in 2018 that instructed the Department of Social Development to employ all state trained social workers.

There is an acute shortage of social workers in key departments South Africa including in the South African Police Service, the Department of Basic Education, Correctional Services and Social Services.

Written by Mbali Sithole, health research writer @TheLegalSA.

Mental Health Costs SA Economy Billions

Mental Health Wellbeing experts are calling for more to be done to bolster and sure-up the mental wellbeing of workers in the economy of the republic.

This comes as new data shows that mental health or the lack thereof is costing the South African economy over R160-billion on an annual basis.

In 2022, South Africa scored the lowest average in the Mental State of the World Report on Mental Health and Wellbeing.

The worrying data has been highlighted as the republic observes Corporate Mental Health Week, with unaddressed mental health issues in the workplace coming under sharp focus.

Professor Renata Schoeman, Head of Healthcare Leadership at the Stellenbosch Business School, says that worker presenteeism is actually a much bigger problem than worker absenteeism in South Africa.

Schoeman says this is because workers are often pushed far beyond their mental limits on the job. that, coupled with the demands of their personal and social life becomes an unbearable weight on the mind.

Schoeman concludes by saying that there must be a huge focus on the indirect costs linked to health in the workplace.