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GroundUp reports that unemployed health graduates, who have been battling to get jobs despite their qualifications, marched in Pretoria on Friday to demand urgent action by the National Treasury.
They also called for infrastructure at health facilities to improve and for staff shortages to be addressed. When Nobuhle Makhaya graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s medical school in 2021, she hoped not only to help her own family but to bring quality healthcare to patients in her community. But after nine years of training, including a two-year internship and completing her mandatory community service at Standerton Hospital in December, she remains unemployed. Makhaya has been applying for jobs at hospitals in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal with no luck. “All I want is a job. We know there are patients who don’t have doctors to take care of them because there is a shortage of doctors but here we are, unemployed,” she lamented. If the government can bailout dysfunctional state enterprises, it should also prioritise the health system, said Makhaya. She joined about 150 unemployed health graduates who marched through the city centre in Pretoria on Friday. The march was led by the SA Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) and supported by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa), the SA Medical Student Union, and Cosatu, among others. Protesters marched from the Union Buildings to Treasury’s offices. They claimed that more than 1,500 doctors were currently unemployed in the country. They called for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to be fired for failing to increase the budget for health workers. Stadi Mngomezulu of the National Treasury promised to respond to the marchers’ memorandum in two weeks.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Silver Sibiya at GroundUp
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page