South Africa is running out of veterinarians and the problem is most acute in rural areas, according to experts in the field who spoke to the FM.
The signs of a crisis have been identified on the platteland, where posts go unfilled and where a vet can put in long hours working alone.
About two-thirds of rural vet jobs are unfilled a year after being advertised. As for vets seeking a new location, it takes only about a month to find one. These statistics are from a survey done by the South African Veterinary Association (SAVA). It shows a shortage in a profession that safeguards the country’s food safety and security.
Fuelling this shortage, according to SAVA, is the loss of vets to emigration, while not enough of these professionals are attracted to South Africa. What it has created is a profession under strain, where fewer than 3,500 vets countrywide are responsible for 75-million production animals and 15-million pets.
For many who remain it means long hours of hard work, as SAVA MD Gert Steyn explains. “In northern KwaZulu-Natal there is a 75-year-old vet who is still practising. Five years ago there were 10 vets at the practice, but they have now all emigrated and he is the only one left. He provides the same services, works seven days a week, wakes up at four in the morning and finishes at 10.30 at night.”
Steyn says it is a shortage that can be rectified by making it easier for vets to work and by cutting through red tape. A start would be getting vets back on the critical skills list, from which the profession was removed two years ago, he says.
Fewer than 3,500 vets are responsible for 75-million production animals and 15-million pets
“If vets are not on the critical skills list, it means that a foreign worker needs to go through a laborious process to get a work visa. Fortunately, we have seen some movement from the government to retract this,” says Steyn. Foreign vets also need to complete a year’s compulsory community service before being allowed to work in South Africa.
“What has happened is that we have basically closed our doors for foreigners to work here. We have vets streaming out the country and we can’t get any back in,” says Steyn.
This shortage is at its worst in rural areas. Danie Odendaal, director of the Veterinarian Network, says: “You can’t say there is a shortage [in general], you have to break it down in the various sectors. If you look at the pet sector, there are practices on every second street, and people are spending more money on their pets than before.”
The added problem, Odendaal points out, is that there is limited carrying capacity for rural vets in South Africa. “If it is worth their while to be there, a vet will be there,” he says.
A third of South Africa’s national production herd can be found on communal lands. Peter Oberem, owner of animal health company Afrivet, says: “In many of those areas, they can’t afford to pay you.”
Another problem is that there is only one veterinary faculty in South Africa. The University of Pretoria’s Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute produces about 150 veterinary graduates a year. There has been a call for a second veterinary faculty to be opened, but this, says Steyn, will be expensive and difficult. It will be a struggle to fill academic posts because of the critical skills issue, and there is concern that the new institution might not get the same accreditation and recognition as Onderstepoort.
If the second veterinary faculty does not get the same accreditation, “it means you will have two tiers of veterinary schools in South Africa, which doesn’t promote equality”, Steyn says.
“And we need to look after our vets better. Many of them, after studying, go overseas so they can pay back student loans. We need to find ways of helping these young people,” he says.
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