Doctors kept their word and called off strike action in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng on Tuesday morning, the provincial health departments said.
Gauteng health department spokesperson Mandla Sidu said the department had not received any reports of striking doctors.
”The strike was called off yesterday [Monday] and nothing to the contrary has been reported to us so far.”
The South African Medical Association, representing doctors, would meet government over the implementation of the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) — a revised salary structure intended to improve the salaries of public sector workers — on Wednesday.
Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said there also no reports of striking doctors in the province.
”We are happy that they are all back at work as we had said to them no work, no pay,” said Kupelo.
More than 150 public-sector doctors were protesting outside the Nelson R Mandela Medical School in Durban on Tuesday.
They were protesting against delays in implementing the OSD, intended to increase their salaries in line with their levels of experience and stop an exodus to the private sector.
SA Registrars’ Association president Lebogang Phahladira said they were expecting more doctors from other hospitals to join in the Durban protest action.
”Gauteng and Eastern Cape have decided to await the outcome of tomorrow’s [Wednesday’s] meeting,” Phahladira said.
He said a few doctors from certain hospitals in QwaQwa in the Free State had also taken to the streets on Tuesday. – Sapa