This comes after the South African Medical Association’s (SAMA) Limpopo branch called on the Limpopo Department of Health (DoH) to pay the medical practitioners their salaries after new medical interns, community service and grade one medical officers in various hospitals did not receive the salaries they were supposed to have paid into their accounts.

According to a statement issued by SAMA, the vanguard union of medical practitioners in Limpopo province, the department had failed to pay some of the medical practitioners on January 30. SAMA officials had been contacted by numerous medical practitioners who were either not paid at all, had only been partially paid or had received a lower level salary than they were entitled to.

No salary

We are rectifying our mistakes. It was a matter of human resource personnel from the district level up to the institutions having problems coordinating information.

SAMA Limpopo branch secretary Dr Seshoka Muila said, “there are more than 10 practitioners who didn’t get paid at all while there are at least 30 doctors who did not receive their full salary.”

The department’s spokesperson Derick Kganyago acknowledged that the fault lay with the Health Department and said the problem had been caused by Human Resources capturing incorrect information on the Persal system. He said the issue was being addressed and correct salaries would be paid out.

“We are rectifying our mistakes. It was a matter of human resource personnel from the district level up to the institutions having problems coordinating information,” Kganyago said, giving an undertaking that payments would be rectified as quickly as possible.

However, SAMA says they reject the department’s explanation for the failure of payments, stating that the DoH knew the number of practitioners that needed to be paid since November 2016.