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South African Doctors Take to Streets Demanding Higher Pay
The march follows weeks of angry picketing and an illegal strike last month over charges of gross underpay, drug and equipment shortages, and heavy workloads with shifts lasting up to 36 hours.
"We have been sitting on time bomb for a very long time. For many years we knew that doctors were awfully paid and worked under awful conditions," Zwelinzima Vavi, leader of the powerful COSATU labour federation told marchers in Pretoria.
"There is crisis looming at all public hospitals. Please address the problem before it explodes. Doctors pay must rise," he said.
Some 500 doctors from government and private hospitals marched in Pretoria over wage adjustments that the state has failed to introduce since July last year.
More than 1,000 others marched in the coastal city Durban, the SAPA news agency reported.
The South African Medical Association (SAMA), a 17,000-strong body which organised the march, said an independent study had shown that state doctors were underpaid by between 50 and 75 percent.
South Africa has more than 14,000 state doctors who serve 80 percent of the 48 million population who cannot afford private health care. Some 43 percent of South Africans live on less than two dollars a day.
"We clearly, on our basic salary, are demanding a 50 percent hike up to bring us to parity with other professionals," SAMA chairwoman Denise White said.
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