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179 social workers for rural areas

Sne Masuku

Sne Masuku

More than 100 social workers are to be deployed to the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal in a bid to speed up social services delivery.

The deployment of the social workers comes as the department of social development faces a huge internal fraud and corruption investigation.

The new recruits were introduced to the media at a special welcoming ceremony in Durban yesterday. They were recruited from various universities around the province.

The province's MEC for social development, Meshack Radebe, urged the 179 recruits to become his department's "ambassadors". Radebe said the main priority was to fight fraud and corruption.

He told them to remember the alarming number of child-headed homes and the high rate of bedridden victims who are unable to work after being infected by the deadly HIV-Aids pandemic in the rural areas.

"Never close for the day while there are still people in the queues. Many have travelled long distances to get to the social welfare offices," Radebe said.

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