Interrogating the Meagre Response of Social Work to the “Social Question” Exposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in South Africa in March 2020 unleashed not only a health crisis, but also a “tsunami” that disrupted every aspect of human and social life. Social work practice and education were not spared. The aftermath of the pandemic saw various services declared essential while the conventional delivery of others, including social work, were brought to a complete halt. In response, social workers elsewhere explored innovative strategies to continue rendering services remotely. In South Africa, some social workers embarked on consultative engagements through various formations whilst, others either remained mum or lamented the exclusion of social work as an essential service. Notwithstanding the fact that the above were not the only responses, the consequences of the lack of a unified professional voice and leadership may have far-reaching and negative consequences. This article presents a critical interrogation of the South African social work response throughout the pandemic. The interrogation reveals three explanatory factors behind the ineptness of social work, namely: professional decadence; a perpetual struggle for recognition; and the need to improve the status of the profession in society. These factors explain the unsatisfactory responses of the social work profession. The author argues that this amounts to failure to engage the social question, which inadvertently leads to the erosion of the value, status and societal recognition of social work. The author proposes serious professional reorientation to a focus on the social question which translates into focusing primarily on societal rather than disciplinary issues and problematics.