Hon Minister, our foster care crisis is very closely linked to our social worker crisis. We simply do not have enough social workers to protect all of the children that we need to protect. In fact, many children have fallen through the cracks and foster care orders have lapsed. Social workers are overburdened and high case loads cannot always be solved.
President Ramaphosa recently told us that it pains him that so many social workers that were trained by the state remain unemployed. He committed the state to ensuring that those social workers are employed.
So, simply put, Minister, what is the plan with regard to all the social workers that remain unemployed? Can you give us a timeframe in which those social workers will be absorbed and employed?