Unemployed social workers march to Union Buildings
Unemployed graduates met at Sammy Marks Parks to march to the Union Buildings on Tuesday.
Groups of unemployed social workers marched in the Pretoria CBD on Tuesday demanding they be permanently employed instead of on fixed term contract
The unemployed social workers movement of SA (USWMSA) continued its series of marches by taking their grievances to the Office of the President.
Fed up with the lack of action from the Department of Social Services and the UN to its previous marches, USWMSA decided to march to the Union Buildings and the office of the SA council for social service professions (SACSSP) in central Pretoria to hand over a memorandum of demands.
The TMPD provided a police escort to the disgruntled social workers that were draped in all-black attire and graduation regalia. The unemployed graduates met at Sammy Marks Park and proceeded to their destination, singing songs, chanting demands, blowing whistles while bringing traffic to a standstill.
A representative of USWMSA, unemployed social worker Patrick Ngobeni vented his frustrations by saying “we are marching to the Union Buildings because it’s clear that we have been undermined for many years. Qualified graduates can sit six, seven years at home… no job, we’ve had enough”.
Ngobeni went on to call for permanent employment for unemployed social workers.
“We [are] demanding absorption, all of us must be employed permanently. We are tired of these contracts, we are mothers and fathers with families that can’t depend on contracts to survive in these expensive times,” Ngobeni said.
Other protesters that came from different provinces, like Phakamisa Sakata from the National Union of Social Workers (Eastern Cape region) joined the march. They called out Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu and her department for not doing enough to address the issues unemployed social workers have.
“It’s clear that the minister and the department have not come to the party. We have been marching and are yet to see any impactful change. We are tired of the stories, there are over 9 000 unemployed social workers that can make a change in our society and they deserve a chance to,” Sakata said.
A social worker from KwaZulu-Natal, Zola Madondo called out the department for not doing enough to assist unemployed social workers suggesting that they are the key to tackling social ills affecting South Africa.
“Our communities are very violent, in schools there’s bullying, teachers being assaulted, gender-based violence, sexual violence, and these are only increasing. Hire us, not for contracts but put us in the private sector so we can play our part in fighting these issues,” Madondo said.
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