More than 200 doctors have been fired for failing to report to work in different hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, SABC radio news reported on Monday evening.
The provincial health department said it had issued 226 letters of dismissal to health care professionals so far.
This after they defied a court interdict ordering them to abandon the illegal strike and return to work.
”We will continue with the strike until our demands are met. We are defying the court order,” said KwaZulu-Natal striking doctors’ spokesperson Dr Shailendra Sham.
The Labour Court in Durban granted the health department an interim interdict on Saturday, forcing health workers to return to work.
The department on Monday said it had not yet decided on how it was going to deal with the impact of the mass dismissals.
Spokesperson Chris Maxon said the majority of the dismissed doctors were from Durban hospitals, which were hardest hit by the strike.
”We know that it’s quite a very heavy decision … and we’ve been pushed into taking such a decision. Once everything has been done we’ll have to first decide on how we then move forward.
”At this stage we can’t say how the impact of this decision has been because we haven’t completed it,” Maxon said.
Earlier on Monday Democratic Alliance health spokesperson John Steenhuisen said it was ”sheer lunacy” that the health department could even consider dismissing doctors.
”Despite the seriousness of the situation, the fact remains that the province is facing a critical shortage of doctors, particularly in urban areas — who will replace them if they are dismissed?”
Steenhuisen said the strike had been ”a long time coming” and called the government’s latest offer to doctors ”unsatisfactory”. — Sapa