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The South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU) is calling on the government to urgently employ unemployed doctors, saying the country’s public health system remains critically understaffed despite qualified professionals being available.
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SAMATU General Secretary Dr Cedric Sihlangu said delays in employing local doctors are worsening pressure on public healthcare facilities.
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“SAMATU unequivocally supports and aligns with all efforts that seek to ensure the employment of many South African unemployed doctors who currently languish at home in despair, desperate for an opportunity to practice their profession.”SAMATU stands firm in the belief that all doctors legally in the country, passionately serving our people, must do so in line with the enabling legislation and must remain protected under the law.”The country needs more doctors, and we must start by employing all the unemployed doctors without delay, failing which will be the perpetuation of injustice to the whole nation.”This issue of unemployment of doctors and healthcare workers, by and large, is really unwarranted and undesirable to the whole community. What we see is that the government has been very sluggish in its efforts to deal with this problem.
“We still have about 1,400 doctors; it’s now July, they’re still sitting at home, and we find that to be unacceptable. We believe that all doctors who are in the country and those who are unemployed must be employed.”
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Sihlangu rejected claims that budget constraints are the main obstacle, arguing that funding for doctors is allocated but is often redirected by provinces to other priorities.The union is urging the government to prioritise the employment of unemployed doctors, warning that continued delays undermine healthcare delivery and leave qualified medical professionals without work while communities continue to face staff shortages.
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“A couple of weeks ago in Parliament, when responding to questions, the Minister of Finance indicated that money has been allocated for the employment of doctors. However, when the money lands in the provinces, the provinces deal with it as they deem fit in terms of the equitable share, and they repurpose that money for other issues that they deem important.
“Unfortunately, this therefore perpetuates this problem of chronic, perennial unemployment when the money actually arrives in the provinces, but it’s not utilised for that purpose. So, the whole narrative of fiscal constraint and budget deficit, we hear that, but the government itself, if you look at what the Finance Minister is saying and what is happening in the provinces, they’re speaking in two different corners of the amounts.”Clearly, there’s no one willing and prepared to take accountability for health delivery in this country. The current government is not showing any signs that it’s really determined to take real decisions when it comes to health in this country. I think it will come to a stage where it is the citizens of this country that will have to decide what should happen to a government that doesn’t take it seriously.”
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Source: https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/07/15/samatu-calls-for-urgent-hiring-of-hundreds-of-unemployed-doctors