Cape Town - Newly graduated South African veterinarians will be paid about R44 000 a month during their year of Compulsory Community Service (CCS), almost double what they would expect to earn in the private sector – and more than many veterinarians with years of experience.
Next year will be the first year graduates from Onderstepoort (the only facility where students can study to become a veterinarian in South Africa) have to perform community service, which is already compulsory for doctors who earn about R42 000 a month during community service.
Dr Paul van Dam, the managing director of the South African Veterinary Association, in an open letter to all final-year veterinary students, said their monthly salary would amount to about R44 000 a month.
They would be paid as “government” or “state” veterinarians and would be remunerated at the level of a fully functional veterinarian, not an internship, nor in-service-training. But they wouldn’t receive a rural allowance or compensation for accommodation.
Van Dam pointed out it was more than new graduates “fresh from Onderstepoort” would be offered anywhere else.
He told students it was important to realise their salary would take a “huge dip” after the CCS year, and suggested they used the money to pay off as much as possible of their student debt and to get financial advice.
The year of community service will be funded by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), and the veterinarians will be the employees of the department.
However, according to DAFF they may be placed or seconded to any strategic partner, such as Animal Welfare organisations, private practitioners and other veterinary community outreach service providers.
One vet in private practice in Cape Town said paying new graduates R44 000 a month was “crazy”.
“It is in no way compatible to what a new graduate would earn, and if people start demanding salaries like that, they won’t get a job.”
There was also concern that inexperienced graduates would replace state vets, who are responsible for diagnosing transmittable and notifiable diseases.
“If you have a bunch of inexperienced vets in the sector they might not even recognise some of these diseases.”
A senior manager in the animal welfare sector said new graduates getting paid R44 000 per month for a 40-hour week was the equivalent rate at which a vet with three to five years experience could demand for a 50-hour week.
The senior manager said it defied logic.
CAPE ARGUS