The Caravan Moves On

Abstract

Reading the latest issue of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk at my desk in Australia, I note with extreme interest the tum of events in social work in South Africa and I am led to reflect once again on history and to ask myself, is history repeating itself? Although it took different forms across the Western world, similar trends are woven through social work's development across widely divergent contexts, among them its relationship to state interests and social organisation. Just as the apartheid government moulded social work for its purposes, the ANC government is doing the same though the priorities are different. The former created well-organised infrastructure that mainly benefited white society. The latter is trying to do the same for black society. This is well and good and essential to the creation of a just society in South Africa. My interest is more with political allegiances. The conservatives have become radicals and the radicals are now conservative. The most interesting part of this change is that social work persistently remains a conservative profession supportive of state interests and social organisation.