Social Work in South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, is a reflection of the broader political landscape of our Country. The fact that the formal “traditional” Non-Profit sector (most often funded by government) ignored this reality pre 1994, led the establishment of an alternative community based welfare sector developing (quite often funded with international funds). Post 1994 all these organisations and various professions were seen as one body. It was said in 1994 that the profession of social work was deeply divided with an inability to lobby politicians and advocate on behalf of their clients. (The post-1994 transformation of social work in South Africa; Mel Gray, Antoinette Lombard the University of Newcastle, Australia; University of Pretoria, South Africa)
And here we are twenty years later and what has changed. The Profession was identified as a scare and critical skill, the inability to implement services was highlighted … “the overwhelming demand for services and the inability to cope with such demands. This is particularly true for social workers who are at the coalface of delivery to the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of society” (DSD, 2005c:4).one by one. DSD has started a bursary scheme to get more students to study Social Work (and then according to posts on Professional FB pages – don’t employ most of them). The SACSSP (once again according to FB pages) is as vilified as ever. Salary’s still suck, and caseloads are higher than ever. Social Problems in our communities are spiralling out of control (across the spectrum). Individuals will have different opinions about what has changed, what still needs to be changed etc.
However, it seems that one aspect that has not changed is the lack of a unified and cohesive Social Work front. I read some posts on some of the SA social worker pages on Face Book, on many relevant and pertinent issues. Regardless of the issue or subject matter under discussion, the validity and rationality of replies and comments - a clear communication pattern is emerging. That is – The conversation rapidly disintegrates into a contentious, personal and quite often off –the- point argument. Most recently there was a post which disintegrated into an argument regarding the professional action (interpreted by those against as non-action) versus nonprofessional action (Interpreted by those against as burning tyres) in securing Social Worker Rights. As quite often happens - all further Reponses changed focus from the actual point (Social Worker Right’s and the profession) and focused on being a professional or ignoring the professional context. What did this discussion achieve? By the end of discussion some contributors were clearly upset with others and the status quo of Social Workers Rights unchanged. For those who see Professionalism as the first and main point of reference: Professionalism does not mean non- action or compliant and obedient action. Social Work has a long a proud history of contributing to social change through social activism and civil disobedience. The Social Action model is a key socio-political empowerment model for work with oppressed groups, communities and organisations. (and in this case the profession of social work.). Maybe, if the “traditional” Non-Profit sector more actively got involved in (unified) social action and social mobilisation prior to 1994, we would have been further along in establishing our profession to its rightful position. For those who say Forget about Professionalism: Why ever do you want to jump to the most uncompromising and radical social action as first point of reference and intervention. Because make no mistake – it will be the first intervention. You cannot argue that we as Social Workers in SA has a long, extensive record of addressing the issues affecting us-as a unified group. We complain as individuals, we complain a numerous individual on FB Pages and then start fighting with each other in Social Media, we try and start numerous unions/ bodies through the years which (as happened here with us in the Western Cape most recently) gets bogged down in infighting. We cannot say that what we have done as a profession in the past has not worked, because we as a one Profession has not done much. We also need to remember that we cannot fight for the recognition and acknowledgement of Social Work as a profession, and then we ignore the fact that we are a profession. Furthermore, as a profession, and in the organisations we work we seem to keep fighting each other – for clients, for funds, for survival and sustainability, for professional recognition of the various categories of staff etc.
In the Socio-Political field divide, conquer and rule is the process of gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into pieces that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. How helpful it must be to those undermining, weakening and ignoring our profession - that we do the dividing ourselves
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