IN PICS | Unemployed healthcare workers march to Union Buildings to demand jobs

About 200 healthcare workers are marching to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday to submit a memorandum regarding their battle to find employment within the public sector.

Wearing their work scrubs, they are peacefully marching while holding banners and singing chants including “They have killed Tintswalo, they say she is a witch,” and “We don’t have money, we don’t work”.

Nwabisa Yokwe, a registered dietitian, said she has been looking for employment for nine years. 

“I did community service which ended in 2015. I haven’t been able to get absorbed in government since then.

“I have been trying to apply but nothing is coming in the government sector. It has been very difficult for dietitians,” she said.

“We don’t know how to pay our rent. This year, from January until now, there have only been two posts for dietitians in all of South Africa and those posts are in the Northern Cape.”

Koketso Mokhondo, a recently qualified dietitian, said seeing the plight of her fellow unemployed colleagues dims her hopes of finding employment soon.

“It is very scary looking at how long my colleagues have been in the game and still haven’t been employed. That is why it was important for me to come here today to make sure my two months of job-seeking does not turn into two or three years,” she said.

Mokhondo said she had adapted to earning an income during her community service work and was stressing about covering her expenses this year.

“During community service you are working and earning a salary, you adapt to a lifestyle, you are used [to] getting an income. We have families.

“I have a son. I am used to taking care of him and in my mind I was working very hard on being absorbed in the hospital where I was doing community service. We were told there is a need for dietitians. Now I am hit with the reality.”

The department of health said last week an additional budget of R3.7bn has been allocated towards compensation of employees in the sector for the financial year 2024/25 to address the wage bill increase and recruitment of additional staff including nurses and medical doctors.

It said it will soon outline the plans with timelines for the recruitment and appointment of health workers, including recently graduated health professionals and unemployed medical doctors.

TimesLIVE