Unemployed doctors protested in KwaZulu-Natal last year, demanding to be employed in the public healthcare sector, leading to the provincial Health Department releasing posts to be filled.
Image: Sabelo Nsele / Independent Newspapers
The South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU), which represents the interest of medical doctors, has punched holes in the KwaZulu-Natal State of the Province Address (SOPA) by disputing the number of doctors, which Premier Thami Ntuli said they have been employed in the past financial year.
Delivering his annual speech in Pietermaritzburg on Friday, Ntuli boasted that 238 doctors have been employed. But SAMATU has expressed doubts on the number of doctors employed in the province, as it said it was aware of only 120 posts that were advertised last year.
Hundreds of qualified doctors, who were unemployed, marched in Pietermaritzburg early last year to the Department of Health provincial head offices at the Natalia Building to demand employment.
They also picketed outside the Premier’s Office.
Realising that their plea for employment was falling on deaf ears, a large group set up mobile workstations outside the Natalia Building last July to provide free medical care to people in the CBD as part of their protest to demand jobs.
This was followed by Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane promising them 20 medical profession posts to be filled.
However, as the year progressed, another 100 posts were promised.
Every year, new medicine graduates would after completing their community services join the unemployment list.
Ntuli had said in the SOPA that the recruitment of health workers was focused on critical clinical posts “to stabilise facilities and reduce workload pressures”.
“I know that whenever I went to the office, there would always be doctors standing outside looking for job opportunities.
“The Government of Provincial Unity has responded; therefore, the doctors have been employed,” said Ntuli.
However, SAMATU Provincial Chairperson Dr Mlungisi Mtshali described Ntuli’s claim of doctors’ employment as a fallacy, saying many other qualified doctors were still unemployed.
He said his union only knew about 120 of the posts advertised last year.
“In our province, as things stand, we have more than 250 unemployed doctors from the group that picketed in 2025, who had completed their studies a long time ago.
“Only 120 doctors have been employed. After the sit-in early last year, 20 jobs were advertised, and after negotiations and continued sit-ins, another 100 more posts were then advertised,” said Mtshali.
Mtshali said that had the total number of 238 posts been advertised, SAMATU would have known about it.
“We are always with the group of unemployed doctors checking advertised posts.”
However, provincial Department of Health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa said the 238 doctors, which Ntuli said were employed, were correct.
“These appointments include 20 medical officers, 100 medical officers, 50 medical specialists across various disciplines, as well as 68 additional medical officer posts funded through an allocation from the National Department of Health.
“The posts were filled through recruitment processes conducted during the course of the 2025/26 financial year,” said Maphisa.
Mtshali also claimed that the national government had last year released a budget to the provincial government to exclusively employ another 243 doctors for the 2025/26 financial year.
He said this employment was supposed to start on November 1, 2025, but he said the union was only aware of 120 posts, whose process of filling was completed.
He provided a document, which indicated that the province was given R150,095,496 from the National Treasury for the employment of health professionals, including 243 doctors, 40 nurses, 51 other healthcare professionals, 5,987 community health workers with matric, and 3,807 community health workers with no matric.
“Now there is this 243 we are inquiring about, saying since the national had allocated a budget for 243 posts, there has never been employment from that figure.
“Perhaps we will be hearing soon that there are posts that are going to be advertised, as we know that KwaZulu-Natal is the worst when it comes to the unemployment of doctors, as our number is higher than any other province,” said Mtshali.
Dr Nobuhle Dladla (not her real name) is now celebrating the end of a two-and-a-half-year period of unemployment.
She has finally secured a position within the public health sector, a relief for a doctor who had previously endured years of unsuccessful applications. Due to employment restrictions, Dladla spoke to the media under the condition of anonymity.
“I am one of the people who have been employed,” Dladla confirmed, highlighting her participation in the employment picketing that sought to address the issue of jobless doctors.
Dladla admitted that her prolonged unemployment after completing her community service had been a source of deep embarrassment.
“People would say what the use of studying for so many years to become a doctor only to be unemployed after graduating is,” she recounted.
She felt she was “not a good example to young people who want to study medicine”.
However, everything has changed with her securing a full-time job. Dladla now sees the positive impact of her employment, as it allows her to practise her passion for caring for the vulnerable and to become a breadwinner for her family.
“After two-and-a-half years of unemployment, this is a very positive change because I am now turning my life around,” she said.
Her confidence has returned, and she feels empowered in her “activism in the society as I carry the responsibility for myself and my patients”.
Furthermore, she added: “I am even able to take care of my family because most of us are coming from families whose members are only looking up to us for survival.”
She expressed that it is a privilege to be able to provide the necessary medical care to those who need it.
While she knows that other doctors who picketed were also hired, Dladla could not confirm the exact number of people employed. “It is because we do not have a source who can tell us if the 120 posts were filled, but I know that they are people who were employed,” she concluded.
bongani.hans@inl.co.za