Chairperson, we are committed to ensuring that the social workers, particularly the ones who have been trained by the state, are placed as soon as possible. It is very unfortunate that it has taken us this long, and that social workers who were trained were not immediately deployed. But the reality was that, even though we trained those social workers, we did not necessarily have the money to then employ and pay them.
We have now prioritised this issue and have taken concrete steps to consider taking money from somewhere else within the budget without necessarily undermining those other responsibilities. I can assure the House that we have, at the moment, managed to pull together about R90 million or thereabouts which we will use to pay these social workers.
But we also do believe that, when social workers are trained by government, it is our responsibility to start looking at who else can assist us so that the social workers do not depend only on the Department of Social Development for their employment or deployment.
We are very much aware that within education, within the police, within justice, and within some other structures there are opportunities to have co-ordinated efforts. We should have discussions with these departments and make sure that we absorb all social workers.
In our view, we need social workers community by community, street by street, almost house by house if we want to ensure that the work of social workers has an impact. This need for social workers includes their deployment in schools. We are not happy with the fact that social workers carry a heavy burden. One social worker in a school that has so many challenges ...
So, in this sixth administration, we will do our best to pool our resources, not only under Social Development, but also in general to make sure that social workers are employed. Thank you.