Unemployed Doctors March To Mpumalanga Govt Offices To Demand Jobs

Unemployed medical doctors in Mpumalanga have marched to the provincial government offices to demand jobs. The doctors, who were offered bursaries by the government to study medicine, accuse the Department of Health of failing to employ them.

The protest march was organised by the South African Medical Association Trade Union Samatu.

Qualified medical doctors who were given bursaries by the government to study medicine took to the streets in Mbombela to vent their frustrations at being unemployed.

The doctors claim that when they returned from university, they were given internships hoping that at the end of the programme they would be absorbed into the system. For some, when the programme ended they were kicked out.

Handing over their memorandum of grievances, Samatus Provincial Chairperson, Dr Mandla Mathabe, accused the government of doing very little to reduce the high unemployment rate.