Question NW1394 to the Minister of Social Development
07 January 2020 - NW1394
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Social Development
Since her speech during the Debate on Vote No 17 – Social Development on 11 July 2019, that more than 5 000 social workers who have been trained by the State remain unemployed, what progress has been made to secure employment of these social worker graduates?
Reply:
Respective provincial departments are engaging various provincial Treasuries to secure funding for appointment of social work scholarship graduates. In this regard by end September 2019 a total of 239 social work graduates were appointed by provinces as follows: Gauteng appointed 140 permanent, Western Cape appointed 14 on one year contract and 8 on 24 months internship, Northern Cape, North West and Eastern Cape also appointed 23, 21 and 31 graduates respectively on internships.
The Department secured special allocation of R93 million, which will be used by provincial departments of Social Development for employment of 200 social work graduates.
These graduates will be appointed to support the Gender Based Violence Programme.
The 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework baseline for the scholarship programme has been reduced, where funds will be shifted towards employment of scholarship graduates. The implication is that budget has been allocated for the next three years where R112.6 million will be allocated for 2020/21, R139.4 million for 2021/22 and R146.1 million for 2022/23. These funds will be shifted to provincial equitable share to sustain employment of 326 scholarship graduates.
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Approved by the Minister of Social Development
Date……………………….