Question NW1926 to the Minister of Social Development
06 June 2022 - NW1926
Opperman, Ms G to ask the Minister of Social Development
What (a) total number of national adoptions did departmental social workers handle in the past five years and (b) is the breakdown of and reasons for the decline of that number in each province?
Reply:
a) For the period under review sixty-two adoptions were processed by departmental social workers. In the Western Cape, adoption services are primarily dealt with by 34 accredited child protection organisations and social workers in private practice.
There is however adoption cases that are still under investigations which are reflected below and not included in the total numbers (62).
- Northern Cape: 5
- North West: 36
b) Below is the breakdown of adoption cases per province:
|
Province |
2017/18 |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
2020/21 |
2021/22 |
Total |
|
Eastern Cape |
4 |
7 |
10 |
8 |
9 |
38 |
|
Northern Cape |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Mpumalanga |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Free State |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Limpopo |
0 |
0 |
0 |
11 |
8 |
19 |
|
North West |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Gauteng |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
|
Kwa Zulu Natal |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Western Cape |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
The departmental social workers only got registered with the South African Council for Social Service Profession to provide adoption services during 2021/22 financial year. It is important for the Honourable Member to note that departmental social workers in the 8 provinces, namely Northern Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, Eastern Cape, Kwa Zulu Natal and North West only started rendering adoption services during the financial year 2022/23. Only Eastern Cape social workers in some of the districts have been rendering adoption services since 2018/19.