AfriForum Youth ready for legal action over delayed Zuma year placements for medical students

AfriForum Youth invites graduates in medical professions – who are not placed by the state for their community service year (Zuma year) in 2023 – to approach the youth organisation. The youth organisation annually receives distress calls from their young members about the administrative mess that accompanies the mandatory Zuma year.

In order to be qualified and allowed to practice in South Africa, after completing their studies or – in some cases – internships, health professionals must do a mandatory year of community service. This means that after their studies and two-year internship, medical students are for all practical purposes full-fledged health professionals but cannot work if they are not placed for their Zuma year, because they cannot register with the health board without it.

The youth organisation is ready to approach the courts to release medical graduates from their Zuma year if the state fails to place them on time.

“AfriForum Youth views it in a very serious light when young people’s careers are hampered by the state’s maladministration, as is currently happening with medical graduates who have to do a compulsory community service year in a state hospital and are not placed. In addition, South Africa needs every health worker, especially considering the finding earlier this year that there is less than one doctor per thousand citizens,” says René van der Vyver, spokesperson for AfriForum Youth.

Graduates in medical professions who are not placed due to the state’s incompetence can contact AfriForum Youth at rene.vandervyver@afriforum.co.za.