13 Apr 2022

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will carry out a needs assessment to appreciate challenges that Social and Community Development (S&CD) officers in the districts may be faced with.

Responding to a question on Tuesday, assistant minister, Mr Mabuse Pule said they were however not aware that officers had challenges, saying “what I know is that social service providers in local authorities are general practitioners.

Nevertheless, I am aware of the fact that there is shortage of human resource. Mr Pule also indicated that social workers were trained as general practitioners both at Diploma and Degree levels and offer interrelated services to clients.

He said at degree level, training of social workers entailed casework, social planning, community development and advocacy (social action), while specialisation was only at post graduate level (master’s degree).

Mr Pule was responding to a question asked by MP for Nata/Gweta, Mr Polson Majaga who wanted to know if the minister was aware that there were serious challenges affecting S&CD officers in some villages across the country.

Mr Majaga also wanted to know the causes of such challenges and abnormalities of specialisation for the cadre and when that would be rectified since people did not get proper services in different councils and villages across the country. ENDS