By Celani Sikhakhane
- The KZN Unemployed Doctors Association says the provincial Health Department promised 300 posts but advertised only 110 vacancies this year.
- Unemployed doctors have marched to Premier Thami Ntuli’s office and slept outside government buildings in Pietermaritzburg demanding the posts be filled.
More than 200 qualified doctors in KwaZulu-Natal have no jobs. The provincial Health Department promised to fix that. It did not.
The KZN Unemployed Doctors Association (KUDA) says the department committed to releasing 300 funded medical posts. When the vacancies were finally advertised, only 110 appeared. The remaining 190 posts were never explained.
Doctors responded by taking their protest to the street. They marched to the office of Premier Thami Ntuli and to the provincial Health Department’s headquarters at the Natalia Building in Pietermaritzburg. Some staged sit-ins and slept outside overnight.
KUDA secretary Dr Simphiwe Sibiya said the graduates were no longer prepared to wait for assurances.
“The doctors were no longer interested in assurances and wanted decisive action from the government,” Sibiya said.
The department has pointed to budget constraints and provincial Treasury approval processes as the reason it cannot fill posts, even where hospitals are critically short-staffed.
The Democratic Alliance’s health spokesperson in KZN, Dr Imraan Keeka, said the shortages are made worse by government-wide budget caps that stop hospitals from using doctors who are available and ready to work.
The South African Medical Association and SAMATU have backed KUDA’s demands, calling for the immediate placement of graduates into the health system.
Public hospitals across KwaZulu-Natal continue to operate with severe staff shortages, leaving employed doctors with heavier patient loads and patients waiting longer for care.
Pictured above: Dr Imraan Keeka, the DA’s health spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal, speaking on the unemployed doctors crisis.
Image source: KZNDA
