Did the 2024 National Budget provide

In our complex times there is a puzzling mystery at play, is the plight of the unemployed doctors. Did the 2024 National Budget emerge as the long-awaited panacea for this forsaken soul? The scary truth makes us feel shocked and upset; there are so many trained doctors who can’t find work and their skills are wasted. You don’t need to be a genius to see how bad it is for unemployment statistics, and importantly for our healthcare system. It demonstrates how poorly the people in charge are managing things.

So, did the 2024 National Budget offer relief to these aggrieved souls? The aggrieved souls are the unemployed doctors. The answer was unveiled on 21 February 2024. Unsurprisingly, National Budget 2024 did respond to social and employment issues. An additional R58 billion was allocated to pay the salaries of teachers, nurses, doctors, and police. It is proposed that additional spending of R18.6 billion in 2024/25, R19.2 billion in 2025/26 and R19.8 billion in 2026/27 will ensure that the salaries of doctors, nurses and police will be catered for. It is very honourable that funds have been set aside to employ doctors which are desperately need in the health sector. Recent research indicates that there still many doctors unemployed lending to the view that South African medical schools are producing doctors not only for South Africa but for the rest of the world.

Written by Mahomed Kamdar
SAIPA Tax Specialist