Democracy for Social Workers in Zimbabwe: Practicing Social Work in Neo-liberal Contexts- The Impact on Self, Service Users, and Opportunities for Resistance and Change

This paper critically interrogates the contradictions, challenges, and transformative potentials of practising social work in neo-liberal Zimbabwe. Against the backdrop of the state’s retreat from welfare provision and the commodification of care, it argues that the professional democratic space of social workers has been increasingly constrained by managerial, donor-driven, and depoliticising structures. Yet within these same constraints emerge forms of resistance and reassertion of social work’s emancipatory ethos. Drawing on critical social work theory, post-colonial critique, and African-centred praxis, the paper explores how neo-liberalism impacts practitioners’ sense of self, their relationships with service users, and their capacity to enact democratic, rights-based practice. Through a contextual reading of Zimbabwe’s socio-political transformations since the 1990s, it situates social workers as both agents and subjects of neoliberal governance tasked with promoting empowerment while navigating ethical dilemmas, resource scarcity, and the erosion of collective welfare. The paper concludes by proposing a re-democratised, decolonised, and critically reflexive social work practice rooted in the values of Ubuntu, social justice, and solidarity.