**1. Introduction**

Indeed, as some researchers have indicated that social work is a profession of many faces [1], this is indeed validated on the ground, as it faces a conglomeration of challenges, that inter alia includes dealing with children's developmental deficits and their concomitant challenges such as abandonment, abuse, child labour, juvenile delinquency, child trafficking, street children families and lack of their schooling and child poverty [2], addressing the effects of the pandemic such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, hunger and starvation, substance abuse and all kinds of violence, especially gender-based violence, criminal behaviour and xenophobia; poverty making people lead a life of stresses and despondence; homelessness and squalor settlements, all

these quagmires stifling social and community development [3–5]. While the above challenges are ubiquitous and present challenges of different magnitudes, aspersions are cast over the suitability of the social work curriculum most African countries use. Some researchers believe that the curriculum the African countries use was not meant for its crop of socio-cultural challenges. This is why a number of social work pragmatists continue to advocate for a curriculum paradigm shift as well as effectuating its indigenization so that it can be able to adequately address the country's socio-cultural challenges [6]. As the situation is, social work manifests some glaring development challenges, making it face obscurity and poor interventional dividends when compared with its other sister professions such as sociology and psychology. This social work gap presents a conflictual environment that, if not tackled, may render the profession of social work a toothless bulldog.

While social work in South Africa has endeavoured to tackle these challenges and needs to be appreciated [7], some challenges have been overwhelming due to the inadequate number of social workers against the task, making the existing social workers work in an overwhelming environment amid weaker support from the government and NGOs, and private developmental friendly individuals. A lack of especially enough clinical social workers to handle the requisite clinical challenges bedevilling the society such as the need to debrief the victims of gender-based violence has been documented in South Africa [8].

Perhaps a serious confounding development gap in South Africa is attributed to a variegated metaphysical belief system from various traditional practitioners such as the traditional healers and spiritualists whose influence inculcate among the societies some beliefs that are conflictual with the forces of social and community development. Statistically, 80% of the South African population seek health care from traditional healers [9]. These beliefs affect people's attitudes, especially to fight off the diseases such as HIV/AIDS and coronavirus. While the government of the day offers advice and protocols to be used to fight off diseases, the healers who are usually respected members of the community may advise its adherents otherwise. Therefore, an array of metaphysics driven by these traditional practitioners usually concoct a fertile ground for social and community development conflicts. These traditional practitioners are also responsible for the development of myths surrounding the diseases. While South African societies are used to a mythical environment surrounding earlier pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, societies are now embroiled in understanding the myths about coronavirus. While most myths develop as societies cannot fathom the aetiology and epidemiology of a disease, they make education to societies to follow the disease protocols and guidelines a difficult preoccupation [10].
