KZN's newly qualified doctors can't find public posts as the department says it is underfunded

Dozens of doctors who finished their training in KwaZulu-Natal are out of work, while the province's public hospitals and clinics remain short of medical staff. The provincial health department says it does not have the money to fill every vacant post.

"The department is underfunded for 2026/7 financial year, therefore not all vacant posts can be filled," it wrote in reply to a memorandum from unemployed doctors, according to Spotlight, which reported on the dispute this week. The department said it could not commit to timelines.

How many are waiting

Dr Tholumusa Sibiya, the 2026 convenor of the KZN Unemployed Doctors group, estimates that "well over a hundred" recently qualified doctors are looking for work in the province. Others put the number closer to 200. Neither figure counts doctors who have been unemployed since earlier years or who have stopped looking, and an IOL report in August said the national health department has no reliable register of unemployed doctors.

Sibiya studied at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on an Umthombo bursary and qualified in 2022. He did his internship at Ngwelezana Hospital and community service at Manguzi Hospital, and has not found a public-sector post since finishing in 2025. He now works locum shifts at Shelly Beach Hospital without a contract.

Dr Nazo Nxumalo from Mtubatuba qualified in the same year, completed community service at Nseleni Community Health Centre in 2025 and has been unemployed since. Dr Raeesa Kathrada told Spotlight that some colleagues have waited up to three years for a post. "I can feel I'm going into a depression … as are my colleagues," she said.

A province short of doctors

The shortage is not in doubt. A 2025 parliamentary reply put KwaZulu-Natal at about 0.38 doctors per 1,000 people, and the District Health Barometer gives just under 0.4 for 2024. One doctor per 1,000 people is often used as a rough benchmark, although experts say the right ratio depends on the setting.

Doctors still working in the province's facilities, speaking to Spotlight on condition of anonymity, described long queues, overtime, missed breaks and posts left empty when colleagues resign.

The department's own 2025/26 annual report blames budget cuts under austerity for its inability to fill critical posts. A Health Ombud investigation into the deaths of six health workers at six KwaZulu-Natal facilities found that bullying and working conditions did not cause the deaths, but it identified "significant" systemic problems, including staff shortages and frozen posts.

Fifty posts, then silence

Unemployed doctors protested outside the Natalia building in Pietermaritzburg, which houses the health department and the Premier's office, on 17 June. Their memorandum asked the department to advertise every vacant medical officer post within 14 days and to plan for a set number of posts each year.

On 6 July, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane met the group and the South African Medical Association Trade Union. The department first offered 20 posts and later raised this to 50. The doctors say those posts were advertised but nothing has happened since. Sibiya says officials told the meeting the department was "comfortable" with doctor numbers on paper; Spotlight asked the department to confirm this and received no answer.

Spotlight sent questions to the department on 15 October. It acknowledged receipt but had not replied by the 20 October deadline.

Sibiya wants the province to declare a health crisis so that emergency funds can be released, or to create more sessional medical officer posts. "It's almost as though they've given up," he said.