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I along with DA Councillor, Smangele Sabe, recently visited the Zonkizizwe Social Development offices. This visit came after the community held a picket outside the offices because they were not receiving any services.

During the investigation we discovered that this office has not been operating efficiently for the last two months because of the constant interruptions in water and electricity supply. Whilst interacting with staff we discovered that there are three social workers per office, which means that clients cannot be seen privately and there is no confidentiality.

Furthermore, social workers have outdated computers, no printer and in order to print documents for clients, they need to go as far as Boksburg or Vosloorus to print information. When the electricity goes off, the social workers are unable to access their e-mails as there are no back-up 4G modems.

Between 22 staff members, they have to share four vehicles and an average of 150 cases each. This means that each social worker is only able to go out into the community once a week.

The environment in which they work is not conducive, yet the department has failed to spend R400 million in the last quarter for the 2018/2019 financial year. This money could have been used to purchase more vehicles and new computers for social workers.

There has been talk of moving the social workers to the old Khumalo Street Clinic near the Customer Care Centre, but it appears as if there are problems with this building as well. I will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain what exactly the issues are with this clinic and if there are plans to move the Zonkizizwe Social Development offices.

Issued by The DA