Gauteng cuts funding for non-South African social workers

The Gauteng Department of Social Development will no longer fund non-South African social workers. Illustration: Lisa Nelson

• The Gauteng Department of Social Development has introduced new funding clauses barring organisations from using provincial grants to pay non-South African staff.
• The department says social work is not a scarce skill and it has a database of 2,000 unemployed South African social workers.
• But the Gauteng Care Crisis Committee says the problem is government’s failure to create employment pathways for graduates, not immigrants taking jobs.
• People Opposing Women Abuse say the consequence of such a clause is that a Zimbabwean social worker who has served the organisation for 15 years, is fully documented and eligible for permanent residency, now faces losing her job.

Non-profit organisations in Gauteng may no longer use provincial funding to pay non-South African employees according to new service level agreement (SLA) clauses introduced by the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD).

The 2026 SLA also mandates that senior board positions, such as chairperson and treasurer, must be held by South African citizens. Immigrant workers may only be retained if they demonstrate “scarce skills.”

For Fatima Shaik, executive director of People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA), the impact is immediate. A Zimbabwean social worker who has served the organisation for 15 years, is fully documented and eligible for permanent residency, now faces losing her salary because the department is POWA’s primary funder.

Even if Shaik finds alternative funding, the GDSD still requires a South African to fill the funded position.

Since 1979, POWA has provided crucial services for victims of gender-based violence and femicide. It operates 14 offices and two shelters across Gauteng.

Shaik called out “ridiculous excuses” from officials. She said interpretations of the policy vary between Joburg’s seven administrative regions and Gauteng’s local municipalities, adding to the administrative burden. Worse still, GDSD does not fund the organisation’s administrative staff needed to navigate these complexities.

These funding dilemmas threaten the stability of services that vulnerable people depend on.

Department spokesperson Motsamai Motlhaolwa said the new clause was to “ensure that South African citizens who possess social work qualifications are prioritised”.

He said social work is not considered a scarce skill, and there is a database of about 2,000 unemployed social workers in the province.

However, Lisa Vetten, Gauteng Care Crisis Committee chairperson, says the problem is not immigrants displacing South Africans, but rather government’s failure to provide social work graduates with a path to employment.

Motlhaolwa said the clause would not apply retrospectively and only applies to new hires.

However, in practice this has not happened and POWA has not received any funding for the Zimbabwean social worker.

Motlhaolwa said the clause is also to “protect the best interests of vulnerable groups”. Foreign-born workers cannot be properly vetted.

In response, Vetten said that immigrant social workers are documented, vetted and have the necessary work visas. If they had committed a crime, they would have been deported and appear on the National Register for Sexual Offenders or National Child Protection Register.

Immigrant social workers also regularly provide police clearance certificates.

Motlhaolwa said vetting people who work with vulnerable groups is a legislative requirement and therefore “cannot be misconstrued as going against South Africa’s constitutional commitments”.

When asked about the inconsistent interpretation of nationality clauses across regional offices, he said the department holds regular meetings with staff involved in NPO management. He said the head office was open for any organisation that believes it is receiving different directives.

Vetten said she worries that this is another sign of a troubling pattern of xenophobia manifesting in government policy.

She said the GCCC works with over 160 organisations, and non-South African employees are an absolute minority, but are very often critical for these NGOs.

She said that human rights organisations generally oppose such clauses, as it goes against their ethics and morals. Yet, these organisations largely rely on funding from GDSD to stay afloat.

“What do we do when they hold the cards?” she asked.

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