Community Health Care Workers (CHWs) from the North West province marched in Pretoria on Tuesday to demand permanent jobs. They accused the provincial Department of Health of excluding workers without matric certificates from permanent positions.
The workers say health authorities are ignoring a court ruling that ordered the department to hire all community health workers permanently.
“We received a court order in January 2026 that said we must all be permanently absorbed, so the Department of Health decided to take first those with matric instead of everyone,” said organiser, Denise Philemon.
“They are telling us about matric and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), but the court order did not mention any of those things, it said everyone. As non-matric, we are doing the same work that those with matric are doing, our reports are the same, but salaries differ,” she said.
Workers said they have been on short-term contracts for decades. They explained that many long-serving staff members have retired or passed away without pension money, medical aid, or Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) benefits.
“We have been in this programme for more than 20 years. For us non-matric holders, we are being isolated by the government,” said Xolile Godlo. “We are feeling depressed, especially month-ends, because of the different salary, yet we are doing the same work as those with matric.”
Marchers urged the government to value their years of healthcare service instead of focusing only on school qualifications.
“I have worked for 17 years, doing hard work. We even worked during COVID-19, but by grace we survived, now they are rejecting us,” said Nthabiseng Makole. “Our expectation from this demonstration is that if we don’t get a response by the set date, we will take this forward and go back to court.”
The workers, representing members from NEHAWU, PSA, DENOSA, and HOSPERSA, have given the government 30 days to reply in writing by 01 October 2026.
Their memorandum of demands was received by Vincent Ncobondwane, a manager in the Office of the Presidency.
