The Western Cape provincial government has called on the Department of Justice to intervene after an “alarming increase of attacks on social workers”.After a presentation by the provincial Department of Social Development to the standing committee on Social Development earlier in August, the committee wrote to Justice Minister Thembisile Simelane, asking for attacks against social workers attacks to be reclassified as an “offence against the state”, with harsher legal consequences.Dr Robert Macdonald.