Prospects and Pitfalls Experienced by Social Workers Working in a Confounding Environment in a South African Setting

Abstract

While social workers are professionally and aptly placed to facilitate a turn-around environment rife with a conglomeration of challenges such as poverty, ignorance, and diseases, the chapter discusses the developmental prospects and pitfalls that confound their practice in South Africa. Opportunely, social work interventions continue to gain developmental mileage through increased training of social workers, their increased deployment in various versatile domains of social and economic development and increased widening of the scope of social work research, especially current research in fields such as HIV/AIDS and coronavirus. On the other side of the coin, the chapter discusses social work pitfalls attributed to professional curricular gaps as social work continue to follow a western-centric curriculum; the presence of various metaphysical beliefs and myths that weaken or derail social work interventions and a weaker research environment to offer a plausible and timely solution to the prevalent problems. The chapter concludes by calling for a paradigm shift in the social work curriculum as well as its indigenization to productively respond to the South African socio-cultural and geographical milieu.

1. Introduction

Indeed, as some researchers have indicated that social work is a profession of many faces [1], this is indeed validated on the ground, as it faces a conglomeration of challenges, that inter alia includes dealing with children’s developmental deficits and their concomitant challenges such as abandonment, abuse, child labour, juvenile delinquency, child trafficking, street children families and lack of their schooling and child poverty [2], addressing the effects of the pandemic such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, hunger and starvation, substance abuse and all kinds of violence, especially gender-based violence, criminal behaviour and xenophobia; poverty making people lead a life of stresses and despondence; homelessness and squalor settlements, all these quagmires stifling social and community development [3, 4, 5]. While the above challenges are ubiquitous and present challenges of different magnitudes, aspersions are cast over the suitability of the social work curriculum most African countries use. Some researchers believe that the curriculum the African countries use was not meant for its crop of socio-cultural challenges. This is why a number of social work pragmatists continue to advocate for a curriculum paradigm shift as well as effectuating its indigenization so that it can be able to adequately address the country’s socio-cultural challenges [6]. As the situation is, social work manifests some glaring development challenges, making it face obscurity and poor interventional dividends when compared with its other sister professions such as sociology and psychology. This social work gap presents a conflictual environment that, if not tackled, may render the profession of social work a toothless bulldog.

While social work in South Africa has endeavoured to tackle these challenges and needs to be appreciated [7], some challenges have been overwhelming due to the inadequate number of social workers against the task, making the existing social workers work in an overwhelming environment amid weaker support from the government and NGOs, and private developmental friendly individuals. A lack of especially enough clinical social workers to handle the requisite clinical challenges bedevilling the society such as the need to debrief the victims of gender-based violence has been documented in South Africa [8].

Perhaps a serious confounding development gap in South Africa is attributed to a variegated metaphysical belief system from various traditional practitioners such as the traditional healers and spiritualists whose influence inculcate among the societies some beliefs that are conflictual with the forces of social and community development. Statistically, 80% of the South African population seek health care from traditional healers [9]. These beliefs affect people’s attitudes, especially to fight off the diseases such as HIV/AIDS and coronavirus. While the government of the day offers advice and protocols to be used to fight off diseases, the healers who are usually respected members of the community may advise its adherents otherwise. Therefore, an array of metaphysics driven by these traditional practitioners usually concoct a fertile ground for social and community development conflicts. These traditional practitioners are also responsible for the development of myths surrounding the diseases. While South African societies are used to a mythical environment surrounding earlier pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, societies are now embroiled in understanding the myths about coronavirus. While most myths develop as societies cannot fathom the aetiology and epidemiology of a disease, they make education to societies to follow the disease protocols and guidelines a difficult preoccupation [10].

2. Prospects of social workers in surmounting developmental challenges

2.1 Social workers becoming more proactive in social interventions in South Africa

Despite being considered a relatively newer profession compared with its sister professions that offer social services, social work in Africa is gaining more mileage as it unleashes its repertoire of skills to surmount a conglomeration of social ills that continue to stifle and thwart forces of social and community development [4, 5]. In the last few decades, African governments, but majorly South Africa, have realised the role and importance of social work as a tool of social and community development. Perhaps this explains the fact that 16 of the 26 public universities have social work programmes that are statutorily governed by the South African Council of Social Service Professions (SACSSP). Opportunely, two other institutions, Hugenote Kollege and South African College of Applied Psychology have recently acquired the South African Council of Social Service Profession’s (SACSSP) accreditation, and therefore totalled the social work institutions to 18 [7].

However, despite these institutions, through the funding from the Department of Social Development, endeavouring to increase the number of social workers, South African universities have not produced enough social workers to satisfy all the country’s social work needs. According to a study by Van Breda and Addinall [8] in South Africa, by the year 2020, the country had 36,002 population of social workers [8].

Opportunely, the country has seen social workers getting employed to carry out diverse social work interventions ranging from ensuring all children born are supported by child welfare grants, the older persons aptly and timely get their older person’s pensions timely in compliance with the Older Person’s Act No. 13 of 2006 of South Africa [11]. Further, the government through the Department of Social Development in cohort with the Ministry of Primary Education continues to ensure that virtually all the children in public schools are offered meals [12]. This is to offset the effects of poverty among the families to ensure that all children can engage in education [13]. More so, the Department of Social Development is also actively engaged in ensuring that people with various disabilities are accorded grants commensurate with their challenges. This chapter only reports a few of the activities that social workers are engaged in. However, those activities have been integral in the country’s fulfilment of the global agenda that envisage a balanced development of all, as well as fighting ills such as inequalities, illiteracy and poverty, especially among children and women [14]. The activities have also energised the country towards its vision of 2030 as well as its fulfilment of sustainable development goals [15, 16].

2.2 Social work proactivity in research of the contemporary epoch

Opportunely, the involvement of social workers across the board in surmounting, managing or mitigating the effects of coronavirus needs to be hailed in South Africa. This is to avert many of the psychosocial deficits that coronavirus imposed on the citizens [17]. Indeed, poverty on account of coronavirus has been a thorn in the flesh of many South African citizens and those of many countries in the developing part of the world. Opportunely, social workers and other social service professionals are on a record, especially through nongovernmental organisations such as Childline South Africa, of engaging and undertaking many activities to manage and mitigate the effects of coronavirus. For example, they have initiated various psychosocial-based advocacy towards the philanthropic organisations to step in and assist the desperate communities to meet their basic needs, with food topping the agenda [18].

Imperatively, social workers need to be hailed for their fast and proactive response, proving indeed that they have a cardinal responsibility to offer, manage and address the psychosocial quagmires that coronavirus has imposed on South Africans and other people around the globe [19]. In ubiquitous corners of the country, many social workers are on the record, especially through civil society organisations, in poverty arresting mitigating endeavours such as providing food parcels and offering counselling to those made vulnerable to the impact of coronavirus [18, 19].

Applaudingly, the social workers’ advocacy to the philanthropists needs to be increased as government resources to assist the victims of coronavirus run dry. This is because the effects of lockdown destroyed people’s economic and occupational bases, leaving them languishing in poverty and failing to meet their basic needs [17]. Opportunely, this saw the government introduce the R 350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant to cushion the effects of poverty on the unemployed [20]. Perhaps it is at this gesture that the country alongside the social workers thanks philanthropists such as Mr. Patrice Motsepe (chairman of African Rainbow Minerals) who mobilised his friends to donate to the government R1-billion to fight against coronavirus. He is also on record exhorting the communities to apply the ethos of ubuntu by coming together in the fight against the scourge of coronavirus [21]. It is imperative that social workers continue to engage other philanthropists to borrow a leaf from the likes of Mr. Motsepe.

Largely also, social workers in the South African context are now increasingly involved in research to widen the scope of quality of social work skills. This has been in response to the ever-increasing ills of social inequalities, and crimes such as gender-based violence, amid several service delivery protests that have pointed to gaps in social work interventions and possibly the skills the social workers acquire [22]. Credit goes to African pioneers of social work indigenization such as Osei-Hwedie, Roderick Mupedziswa, Mel Grey and Simon Kang’ethe, who have used especially the South African context to show how the western-centric inherited curriculum has ostensibly failed to realise significant development [6, 23, 24]. This is to make it more responsive to the local needs. Although the benefits of this advocacy are taking too long to be adequately achieved, the endeavour is welcome and may turn around the management and dividend of social work interventions soon. In short, the pioneers of indigenization have been drumming up a viable cultural path to service delivery [25].

Social work researchers in South Africa need to be appreciated for their role in advocating for interventions to surmount the quagmire of coronavirus. A simple search in the research google engines will reveal that some social workers have authored articles directing how institutions of higher learning need to respond to the disease in South Africa, reported what is happening in these institutions as well as recommended the role of social service professions such as the social workers in the battle against coronavirus [15, 26]. Some social work researchers have also researched the state of the stigma associated with the disease [27]. This heralds their increased competitiveness in the domain of research, which has perpetually been credited to other professions such as sociology and psychology before the acknowledgement of the role of social work in research development [23].

Further, an important research predisposition regards the care of the clients of coronavirus by family caregivers. Some researchers have called for the application of ubuntu to do caregiving [28]. If societies were to apply ubuntu in caregiving, this means they will display trust, love, sharing, mutuality and reciprocity to the caregiving process. This follows the African philosophies linked to ubuntu of being there for one another, offering a supporting hand to one who is falling and a shoulder to one who is crying [29].

3. Pitfalls associated with offering social work interventions

3.1 Social work curriculum deficit

Evidently, despite the country of South Africa ensuring that 18 schools of the Institutions of Higher Learning have social work programmes with the hope that the country becomes self-sufficient in the number of social workers to tackle many of its conglomerations of social challenges [7], apparently service delivery in many areas managed and run by the social workers appear to be poorly run. This finds evidence from incidents of service delivery protests in ubiquitous corners of the country. While there are many other professionals who are also in the management, this phenomenon possibly points to professional gaps manifested by the social work graduates the country is producing [30]. Indeed, several researchers, such as Osei Hwedie, Mupedziswa Mel Gray and Kang’ethe [6, 23, 24] have in the last few years of decades been drumming up the social work curriculum paradigm shift. This is after a realisation that the social work interventions are not aptly working. This has also been through a realisation that the curriculum the continent has been using was crafted for a western world environment setting, and not to address the challenges Africa is experiencing. In fact, it has now become poignantly clear that the curriculum has been giving African countries and other continents which may be using it a raw deal. This has motivated many social workers such as this researcher to think that the use of the current social work curriculum presents a developmental pitfall that needs to be fixed if African countries such as South Africa are to achieve the requisite developmental standing [23].

However, the need for a curriculum paradigm shift has been driven by the spirit of indigenization that believes that the curriculum should be socio-culturally informed as well as respond to the particular needs of people in a particular geographical locale [6, 24]. While the pace of indigenization appears to be taking a snail’s pace, it is incumbent upon the government of South Africa, whose institutions of higher learning are producing a significant number of social workers, to provide resources to enlist the support of all the social workers to facilitate the indigenization of their interventions. This may mean engaging in various indigenization workshops, where gurus of indigenization such as Osei Hwedie, Mupedziswa, Mel Gray, and Kang’ethe can be allowed to facilitate such workshops. This researcher believes that it is only after our interventions respect the indigenous communities’ buy-in, their attitudes, and thinking that the social work can bring the desirable developmental change. Clinging to a western-centric curriculum presents a developmental deficit as well as a pitfall that must be tackled [25].

3.2 Weaker social work research development in the country

While this researcher has hailed the indulgence in contemporary research as one of the prospects of social work interventions, and South Africa is rated high in social work research development, especially when compared with other African countries, this researcher still thinks that social work researchers have not been active to compete with other closer disciplines such as psychology and sociology [23]. While this observation calls for more rigorous empirical research, this researcher thinks that social workers should not form a scapegoat for their non-competitiveness, by pointing out that their profession is practice-based [31]. The fact that they are practice-based even makes it more imperative to do research that will applicably inform the practice. Although the country has not produced enough social workers and in 2020, had only produced 36,002 social workers, a shortage of clinical-based social workers has been documented [8]. It is this inadequacy of the social work numbers that make social workers in the country suffer immense stress, burnout and lower job satisfaction [32]. Evidence on the ground validates that most South African social workers employed in various domains suffer high caseloads amid poor working conditions. This is an environment that may explain productivity gaps and probably reasons for frequent service delivery strikes [22]. This has probably contributed to a lack of capacity to implement policies and programmes [32].

Perhaps a snapshot check in the google scholar account of the country’s social workers shows very low citations, which could herald their uncompetitiveness in the global research, with especially social work researchers from the Black dominated universities apparently producing a very low volume of research. While the google account details do not form a perfect measure of research engagement, it is an important one, and point to a few of the factors ranging from a researcher’s total research output (citations), the weighted strength of the researcher’s research output (H-index) and the strength of the articles themselves (i10 factor) [33]. This researcher believes that other global research engines such as the Scopus, web of science follow a similar research analysis [34]. This researcher has also noted that research articles for very important domains such as the coronavirus takes too long to be published by the countries’ social work researchers in the South African context, while articles from the developed countries such as those in China are very timeous. It is unfortunate that the students while engaging in various research reports lack locally published work and are instead forced to use publications from the western world. An attempt by some studies to carry out some research on the stigma surrounding the coronavirus in the southern African context has forced the researchers to use data from the developed countries as African research output is little or takes too long to be published [35]. On the contrary, social work researchers from the western part of the world appear to be doing well, judged by how fast they produce outputs in the international google engines. While infrastructural challenges and funding have a share in the contributions, this does not form a feasible excuse for low research output, as there are some well-funded universities, with globally competitive infrastructure in the country.

3.3 Metaphysical beliefs systems that are anti-developmental

Inopportunely, African countries with South Africa leading the pack continue to face myriad development deficits due to its people’s embracement of metaphysical beliefs that run counter to the ethos of development [36]. Conceptually, metaphysics is a reflection on the fundamental nature of being and connotes people’s philosophy or belief system [36]. Evidently, one’s belief system is important as it shapes their identity, and many people see reality through their metaphysical lenses. In fact, people fathom or construct reality through their metaphysical lenses [36, 37, 38]. There is therefore an inextricable relationship between people’s metaphysics or belief systems and their spirituality, as well as their practices. Further, metaphysics in the African context revolves around the spirit beings and their impact on driving reality and power. This also determines people’s cultural orientation, morality, social life, capabilities, customs, enjoyments and day-to-day practices [39]. This means, therefore, that the construction of ethos and norms of livelihood in a particular society may reflect that society’s metaphysics.

Inopportunely, South Africa and its neighbouring countries present a metaphysical environment that defies the rules, norms and practices of social and community development. Perhaps this is because of innumerable traditional practitioners who influence people’s belief systems. For example, statistically, 80% of the South African population seek health care from traditional healers/sangomas alongside other practitioners such as spiritualists [9]. This heralds that they keep playing a major part in African health systems and therefore inculcating to the adherents, a metaphysical environment that is anti-developmental. In fact, in some instances, the healers’ practices defy the country’s constitution. Since the healers’ therapeutic processes do not match those of the biomedical practitioners, people who trust and listen to them may get the wrong diagnoses [40]. This is evident in the early years of the fight against HIV/AIDS when the healers claimed they were therapeutically strong enough to facilitate healing to those who were HIV positive. Such people because of the faith they held in the healers’ treatment modalities, neglected or shunned the advice of biomedical practitioners who are credited, through the application of ARVs, to guide the treatment process of those living with HIV/AIDS [41].

Some research validates that those who stuck to the healers and shunned the prescriptions of the biomedical authorities faced early death or had to be rushed to the biomedical clinics when they were too weak to survive [42]. Research by Kang’ethe [42] in the Tsabong District of Botswana revealed how destructive it was when societies shunned the direction of the biomedical and followed the dictates of healers and spiritualists. This means that the metaphysical beliefs that the society held then of the effectiveness of traditional healing powers to treat HIV/AIDS, held them in ransom, making some ignore the voices of social and community development practitioners. In some rural areas of South Africa, these beliefs, especially in the earlier stages of the HIV/AIDS campaign, have made efforts of the social workers and other social service professionals experience serious campaign hiccups as some members of the society stuck to the prescriptions of healers arguing that they have been under the traditional diagnoses of the traditional healers and spiritualists since time immemorial and could therefore not abandon them for the biomedical practitioners [42].

Moreso, religious metaphysics continues to pose challenges to forces of social and community development through the adherents’ faith that ignores the governmental adherence and practices of social and community development. The case at hand is when the religious leadership discourages their church members from accessing bio-medical health delivery systems or engaging in the immunisation of their children [43]. The practices of Bazezuru of Botswana, a religious grouping under the leadership of Johane Masowe, hold the belief that attending modern clinics or being attended by biomedical practitioners is wrong. This belief has confounded the management and leadership of the campaign against polio immunisation of children and taking them to school in Botswana.

3.4 Mythical environment confounding community development endeavours

Myths are fallacious beliefs about a phenomenon and remain a confounding factor in the battle and management against diseases. However, their development arises from the inability to succinctly understand a particular phenomenon [44]. They, therefore, shape the beliefs of people and their behaviours [45]. For example, when people fail to understand the aetiology and epidemiology of a disease, this prompts the development of myths. Myths become misleading and anti-developmental and are usually fear-evoking as societies grapple to adapt and embrace the meaning embedded in them [45]. This calls for the forces of social and community development to come up with interventions to motivate their demystification [46]. This is because of the danger that fallacious belief systems can pose to development. They make the management of people’s attitudes and thinking so that they can conform to ethos and practices of social and community development a difficult preoccupation. They also form a palatable environment of stigma and stigmatisation [10].

A mythical environment that has been associated with HIV/AIDS in Southern African countries, such as South Africa and Botswana, made the campaign against the management of the disease a very expensive one. This is to demystify the disease and convince people about its dynamics as well as the basic facts about it. The campaign had also to do with efforts to destigmatize the disease [47]. While the campaign against HIV/AIDS in South Africa has not been won as the country continues to spend many billions on the buying of ARVS, the presence of a conglomeration of myths surrounding the disease remains a serious social and community development challenge [48].

The development of myths surrounding coronavirus since the advent of the disease in 2019 has been worrisome as many of the myths runs counter to the forces of social and community development demanding a perpetual education to convince members of the society of the aetiology and epidemiology of coronavirus [49]. Perhaps why it is difficult to control myths is because the phenomenon has economically been exploited by cultural traditionalists such as traditional healers, spiritualists, herbalists, and witches and wizards [9] who make the communities they hail from, believing that they have powers to arrest some of the diseases that the biomedical practitioners have failed to offer a solution for or are still struggling for an answer. These traditional practitioners wish that the communities completely miss out on the knowledge about the basic facts of disease for their own pecuniary advantage [9].

4. Conclusion and social work implications

Despite the importance of the social work profession occupying a very important place and space among social service professions in the western world, it is paradoxical that in many African countries, it suffers obscurity, and recognition deficit especially in the face of other social service professions such as psychology, making its interventions paltry effective. However, perhaps South Africa is increasingly becoming different because social work operatives are increasingly glorified with social work being depended on to help tackle and address a conglomeration of social challenges that bedevil the country. The profession manifests governmental recognition in that the country has 16 schools of social work among the 26 national universities; plus, two other schools housed by two other non-university institutions of higher learning. Opportunely, social workers across the breadth of South Africa have continually occupied different professional offices that facilitate service delivery. Managed by the Department of Social Development, social workers manage the allocation, implementation and distribution of various social welfare grants that inter alia includes, child welfare grants, foster care grants, old-age pensions, disability grants, etc. This researcher believes that these grants are disbursed with some degree of fairness making the country one of the biggest welfare countries in the world. This makes the social work profession a bridge and an implementer for the poverty alleviation process. With the country experiencing one of the highest inequalities in the world and with more than 34 million people relying on welfare grants as the only source of income, then social work needs commendation for facilitating the implementation of these welfare grants. The profession also needs to be recognised for its versatility, meaning that social workers can handle a repertoire of tasks bedevilling society.

The engagement of social work researchers in many important domains in South Africa, such as gender-based violence, xenophobia, crime and coronavirus, and the environment surrounding it has made social work rise in rank to compete favourably with other perennially research-oriented professions such as psychology and sociology. Indeed, social workers are slowly becoming self-contained and are increasingly engaging in cutting-edge research about the challenges bedevilling the society. Perhaps more research credit and recognition go to social work researchers in the South African region who are marshalling effort and energy to indigenize the social work curriculum. This is to make it more responsive to the needs of the citizens.

While the above constitutes the prospects or positive contribution to social work, the profession suffers immense pitfalls or faces a confounding environment. It has been stifled and thwarted by a colonially loaded curriculum that was crafted to take care of the environment different from the African setting. This could explain the fact that most social workers upon graduating from the schools of social work are not able to bring the requisite change that guarantees effective social and community development. This is because the social work curriculum it inherited is remedial and curative as opposed to being developmental. The presence of perennial poverty among the South African communities, despite the mammoth functionalities of the social workers, proves that, indeed, social work is not productive enough to ensure the country achieves a turn -around developmental trajectory.

Another pitfall or confounding environment is that social work has had the challenge of working with communities whose metaphysical belief systems make them undermine the tenets of social and community development. With 80% of the South African societies believing in traditional healers and their practices, alongside other traditional practitioners such as the spiritualists, herbalists, witch doctors and wizards, these practitioners have ensured their adherents believe in their metaphysics and practices, and not what the forces of social and community development stand for. This has been serious in the battle against HIV/AIDS, where some traditional practitioners have not hesitated to make prescriptions for the disease instead of owning the fact that their trade and skills levels cannot subdue HIV/AIDS. This is worrying in South Africa where HIV/AIDS continues to consume a lion’s share of the health budget through the cost of ARVS. Further, these metaphysical belief systems have given rise to an environment rife with a mythical environment that misconstrues the basic facts of a phenomenon of social and community development concern. While HIV/AIDS suffered a catastrophe of myths, coronavirus has not been spared. This has detracted the path of knowing the disease’s aetiology and its epidemiology.

Conclusively, the country needs to strengthen the process of indigenizing the curriculum which will mean changing it to reflect and respond to its socio-cultural and geographical milieu. This will be a major milestone in social work interventions in the country.