The KZN Department of Health will advertise 270 new posts for doctors and nurses in the coming days, in a move seen as a direct response to growing concerns over chronic understaffing and rising unemployment among qualified medical professionals.

The announcement was made by KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane following an Executive Council meeting held this week. The new positions include 150 posts for doctors and 120 for nurses—marking a significant increase from the 20 health-related positions the Department had recently advertised.

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Unemployed KZN Doctors’ Protest Yields Results

This development comes just hours after a group of unemployed KZN doctors took to the streets demanding urgent intervention. The doctors staged a peaceful protest in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday morning and later met with MEC Simelane to hand over a memorandum of demands. The group cited ongoing frustrations with being unable to secure employment within the public sector, despite hospitals across the province operating with minimal staff and overburdened wards.

A group of unemployed doctors in KZN hold banners during a protest in August 2025, demanding government intervention and job placements. — Unemployed doctors protest outside the KZN Department of Health offices in August 2025, calling for urgent appointments amid critical staff shortages in public hospitals. (Photo: Supplied)

Speaking at a press briefing later in the day, MEC Simelane confirmed that the KZN Department would now be advertising 100 posts for medical officers and 50 for medical specialists, as well as 40 posts for specialised nurses and 80 entry-level nurse positions.

“We are moving ahead with advertising a further 100 posts for medical officers and 50 posts for medical specialists, bringing the total number of doctors’ posts to 150,” she said.

She acknowledged the protest and confirmed her meeting with the group of doctors, saying, “We understand their frustrations, and we agree that the need is real. But hiring decisions must be done responsibly, in line with budget availability and service delivery needs.”

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The MEC further explained that the decision to open the 270 posts came after a directive from the provincial Cabinet for departments to identify internal savings and funding opportunities to prioritise critical services.

“In response to this, we’ve worked closely with Treasury and internal units to free up funds and prioritise service delivery. These posts reflect a targeted investment in our public health system. We are rebuilding it—post by post, person by person,” Simelane said.

For the unemployed KZN doctors who protested, the announcement was welcomed but met with cautious optimism.

“We’re pleased that action is being taken, but we want to see the posts filled transparently and urgently,” said one of the protesting doctors, who asked not to be named. “Some of us have been sitting at home for months, even over a year, after completing our community service. We know hospitals are understaffed—we’ve trained there, we’ve seen the reality—so it’s confusing and disheartening that we are not being hired.”

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The protesting doctors also raised concerns about the broader impact of unemployment among health professionals on public healthcare access. They claimed that despite having the training and qualifications, many remain in limbo while clinics and hospitals operate below capacity, especially in rural areas.

A nurse who works at a community clinic outside Empangeni said the announcement was “long overdue.”

“Sometimes you are one nurse with more than 60 patients a day. We are tired. There’s no break, and mistakes can happen when staff are overworked. We’ve been asking for more hands for years,” she said.

Health unions have also weighed in, calling for fair recruitment processes and sustainable staffing plans.

“We welcome the creation of new posts, but what matters now is how quickly and fairly these jobs are filled,” said a spokesperson for the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in KZN. “The vacancies are real. What we don’t want is for this to be a short-term fix. We need long-term investment in staff development and retention.”

The new batch of jobs is expected to be advertised in the coming week through official government platforms and health sector communication channels.

The Department of Health says it will continue its recruitment drive over the coming months and aims to close staffing gaps across facilities, especially in maternity wards, emergency units, and rural outreach programmes.

This move by the KZN Health Department may also provide relief to overburdened tertiary hospitals, which have seen increased patient loads with limited personnel. According to internal sources at two Durban-based hospitals, certain departments have been operating at less than 60% of their recommended staffing levels.

With this development, hopes are high that qualified but unemployed medical professionals will finally find a place in the system they trained for, and that ordinary citizens in KwaZulu-Natal will benefit from shorter queues, faster diagnoses, and safer care.

In the meantime, the group of protesting doctors says they will monitor the process closely and are calling for a transparent recruitment plan with regular updates on appointment timelines and facility placements.

“We’re not here to fight the Department,” one protester said. “We just want to serve. We want to help fix the system. We want to work.”

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