Minister Godongwana aims to absorb unemployed doctors

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says they trying to establish the exact number of unemployed doctors who needed to be absorbed by the government and given jobs.

This follows protests by doctors who have been unable to find a job within the government. Chairperson of the National Assembly’s standing committee on appropriations, Sifiso Buthelezi, said the State had invested a lot of money in training hundreds of doctors. It would be an injustice if the same government did not employ them.

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UNFAIR FOR 800 UNEMPLOYED DOCTORS SITTING AT HOME

The Independent Online reported that Godongwana said it would be unfair to have 800 doctors sitting at home when there was a shortage of doctors in hospitals. The issue has also been highlighted by Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla, who said it needed to be given attention and urgently resolved.

“Let me come to the issue of the doctors; there is a dispute about the number. The number that has been circulating on social media is 800. You, chairperson, you are saying it’s 350, and the health department has got a different number.”

HEALTH MINISTER PHAAHLA CONFIDENT PROBLEM CAN BE SOLVED

“However, in the allocation we have given to health for personnel, Dr Phaahla was convinced that that will also alleviate that problem. We will await the health department to come back to us on that issue. But that is where things stand at the moment,” said Godongwana in his National Budget Speech in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Godongwana said they were still trying to establish the exact number of unemployed doctors because of conflicting figures. He said the Department of Health would inform the National Treasury once that has been sorted out.