School of Social Work and Community Development, University of Kwazulu- Natal, DURBAN, 4041  c/o Professor Vishanthie Sewpaul (Chair)

23 May 2005

The Honourable Minister Z Skweyiya

Department of Social Development (DOSD)

Private Bag X901

Pretoria

0001

Re: Humanitarian crisis through xenophobic attacks in South Africa

We are a group of social work educators and social work practitioners representing the following groups: The Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA); the African Federation of Social Workers; the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI); the National Association of Social Workers, South Africa (NASW, SA) and the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP).  We wish to express our outrage at the senseless killing of people in a country where we profess to uphold the dignity of all human beings. We understand that the dynamics and the socio-economic, cultural and political conditions that serve as precursors to such de-humanising conduct are complex.  While we understand this, the message that needs to go out to communities is that nothing at all can condone any attack on fellow human beings.  We urge all those working in the human services sector and the Government of South Africa to send out a message of zero tolerance for violence.  We must actively send out calls for peace and work toward peaceful resolution of conflict and of differences.

We wish to go further than merely condemn the current attacks and the failures to deal with the crises that we have on hand. We want to offer the social work skills that exist in the country to help deal with the situation.  We propose that the National Department of Social Development and the Department of Home Affairs collaborate with the above-mentioned groups to form crisis teams that we train to engage in community based crisis intervention and trauma de-briefing on an immediate level. The longer term objective is to implement programmes to prevent xenophobia and violence.  We would also have to ensure that we create spaces for dialogue around all forms of exclusions and oppressions in our day to day lives on a sustained basis – this must of necessity include issues regarding xenophobia and how it interacts with other social criteria like “race”, ethnicity, gender, disability and sexual orientation to render some groups of people marginalized and vulnerable to abuse.

The international community looks to South Africa for solutions and we represent a beacon of hope on the African continent.  As South Africans we need to take up the challenges that confront us in far more direct and decided ways than we currently do and as social workers we are offering our skills to be part of the solution to the enormous problems that we are confronted with.  We commend all those social workers who are already engaged and we urge those who are not to make themselves available to deal with the current humanitarian crisis that we face.

Submitted on behalf of the following organisations:

Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI)

South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP)

National Association of Social Workers, South Africa (NASW, SA)

Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA)

African Federation of Social Workers (AFSW)

Cc: Mr V. Madonsela

      Ms N. Kela

      Ms C. Legodu