ZIMBABWE has more than 600 unemployed social workers, while the country battles with the socio-political upheaval in the face of El Nino-induced droughts and the ravages of tropical storm Dineo that left a trail of destruction.
By PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
The grim picture was painted by Public Service minister Priscah Mupfumira in her address yesterday marking the belated International Social Workers’ Day Celebrations in Harare. The celebrations ran under the theme Promoting Communities and Environmental Sustainability.
“Considering the increase in demand for social welfare services in Zimbabwe due to vulnerability which has been exacerbated by poverty and natural disasters, my ministry is advocating for more social workers to be employed by the government,” Mupfumira said.
She, however, could not reveal the exact figures of those currently employed saying the government was presently involved in a staff rationalisation programme. Treasury has imposed a staff recruitment freeze across all government departments in a bid to reduce expenditure which has hit over 90% of revenues.
“We are still in the process of rationalising the public service and we will need to see which critical areas where we have to unfreeze the current recruitment ban in effect,” Mupfumira added.
Many social workers have left Zimbabwe in search of greener pastures in the United Kingdom, Australia and United States.
National Association of Social Workers in Zimbabwe (NASWZ) president Dennis Dzikiti said it was high time that social workers should play a prominent role in development and not only providing emergency services after disasters.
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“We no longer want to be relegated to be emergency workers for serving victims of floods, droughts etc, we want to be seen playing a more developmental role for a sustainable environment,” Dzikiti said.
Dzikiti added: “As NASWZ, we want to make the message very clear, we want to see social workers being employed in environment agencies and local authorities. Social workers have been assisting communities suffering from poor planning by local authorities. A typical example is urban flooding. Social workers would advocate for proactive measures rather than reactive ones.”
The Environmental Management Agency has identified deforestation, drought and desertification, soil erosion, veld fires, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, invasion of lakes and dams, invasion of wetlands, air pollution, waste management as well as degradation as some of the challenges facing Zimbabwe.
