Some people cite neglect, betrayal

Some members of the public have lost faith in social workers and accuse them of sabotage and neglect.

One of the men known as the “hunger strike fathers”, Solomon Mondlane, said both social workers and the department of social development were to blame for this.

“From 2017, I have been calling for the investigation of social workers,” he said.

Mondlane said that after his protest walk in 2017 from Witbank to Pretoria, he received so much communication from parents who also felt victimised.

Mondlane said unqualified social workers were a big problem in the childcare system.

“In 2020, while I was still fighting for my children, I went on a hunger strike for 11 days.

“Many parents approached me during the hunger strike with tangible evidence of victimisation by social workers,” he said.

Mondlane said the complaints involved children being unlawfully removed from parents using fabricated reports, children being unlawfully given up for adoption and children being given up for foster care.

He said that during his hunger strike, he was labelled as a child abuser by the deputy minister because of the false information about him provided by the social worker involved, and the department.

He said he had been falsely accused me of being a child molester, a flight risk, an illegal immigrant and a woman abuser.

“Five years later in this fight, the department of social development finally agreed to investigate CMR Pretoria North [a child protection service] after I presented the petition and tangible evidence of horrifying real stories,” he said.

Democratic Alliance Gauteng spokesperson for social development Bronwynn Engelbrecht said: “Social workers have a very demanding job which often leaves them with burnout syndrome.

“Social workers walk a journey with the victims and often get discouraged and blocked by the processes and court procedures,” she added.

Jerry Chipishi Malatjie said he had been abused by social workers. “The social workers of the department of social development in Limpopo abused me emotionally and psychologically after their gross negligence in handling the dire situation of my late daughter,” he said.

“I asked them to conduct an investigation into the suspicious death of my daughter after my ex refused to take my daughter to a clinic regardless of her dire situation,” he said.

Malatjie said he could still not get over his ex-partner and her mother chasing away the ambulance that he had summoned in a bid to save his daughter’s life.

Carmen Mocke said she has gone through the damaging process of visits under social worker supervision.

“I have lost interim custody of my daughters due to statutory perjury and common law perjury,” she said.

Mocke said she had spent R1.3 million in legal and social worker fees and still had no final court date.