The Department of Social Development will be boosting its capacity to assist families and communities affected by COVID-19 with the recruitment of 1 809 social workers.
The Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu made this announcement during a virtual briefing earlier last month.
"As COVID-19 continues in this regard, we are recruiting an additional 1 809 social workers to reinforce the current workforce and to provide a range of social work services, including timely psychosocial interventions to support affected individuals and families," said the Minister.
The allocation of additional social workers is as follows: Eastern Cape 171, Free State 92, Gauteng 676, KwaZulu-Natal 266, Limpopo 116, Mpumalanga 128, Northern Cape 33, North West 81, Western Cape 246.
These social workers will be employed for a period of three months, with priority given to social work graduates who registered on the department's database of qualified unemployed social work graduates developed in 2019.
A further 1 210 unemployed social work graduates will be given a one-year internship opportunity in a joint venture between the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the South African Council for Social Service Practitioners (SACSSP), the Department of Social Development (DSD) and Wits Consortium.