Instead of celebrating after KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane informed them of more than 200 new healthcare worker posts to be released on Monday, unemployed doctors remained sceptical that this would be another unkept promise. 

Simelane first revealed the news to more than 150 doctors during their march to Premier Thami Ntuli’s office in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday. 

The South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU) led the march, one of several that the doctors had staged since the beginning of the year. 

Samatu convenor Dr Nobuhle Makhanya said that after the doctors had handed their memorandum to the Premier’s office, Simelane came to them to make an unexpected announcement that more jobs would be advertised in addition to 20 doctors’ posts that were released a few months ago.  

However, Makhanya said the doctors, most of whom obtained their medical qualifications from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, were not completely relieved by the promise.

“We have been given a lot of promises that were never kept.

 “We can only wait, we can only get relieved once that is done, but we welcome the commitment, now it is time to wait (for the adverts),” she said.

The department issued a statement on Thursday saying 270 new posts will be advertised next week. 

Before Simelane officially revealed the news, she discussed the matter in the provincial cabinet. 

The new posts include 150 for doctors and 120 for nursing staff.

Simelane said the budget for salaries of new employees had been sourced through the cabinet tasking all MECs to identify where they could cut spending. 

“As a result of a collective effort, we are now moving ahead with advertising a further 100 posts for medical officers and 50 posts for medical specialists, bringing the total number of doctors’ posts to 150.

“The Department will also advertise 40 posts for specialised nurses and 80 additional posts for entry-level nurses,” she explained. 

Simelane said this was a demonstration of the department’s commitment to creating jobs in a tight economy, rebuilding the public health system, and improving access to quality healthcare for the people of the province.  

The doctors had, since the beginning of the year, held several activities that expressed their pain of being dysfunctional because of unemployment to the provincial government. 

One of those activities was to set up temporary stations in front of the Natalia Building, which houses the provincial health department, including Simelane’s office, to provide free medical treatment and advice to the members of the public. 

Even the Premier could see the stations with doctors providing medical care as his office is next to the building. 

The doctors had previously expressed their disappointment  after Simelane had availed only 20 jobs out of about 300 vacant posts in various public healthcare centres across the province.   

To save money, Finance MEC Francois Rodgers had announced in March, soon after delivering the province’s R158 billion budget, that under his watch, the provincial government would stop spending money “on nice to haves” . 

He had committed to making sure that the government stopped over-expenditure on luxury items like vehicle leasing and hotel accommodation, among others. 

He said all the departments, except frontline departments – health, education, and social welfare, would have to survive with slashed budget allocations. 

Rodgers said he managed to reduce over expenditure, which was R10 billion when he took over, by half. The move was meant, among others, to improve service delivery at government healthcare institutions.  

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