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Tears flowed at the nurse's induction at Grey Hospital on Thursday after the KwaZulu-Natal department of health gave 300 nurses permanent jobs, thanks to President Cyril Ramaphosa's stimulus package.
The programme is aimed at boosting the public health sector through the creation of more than 5 300 jobs in SA.
"I could not believe it," said Nompumelelo Majola who has been seeking permanent employment for 13 years.
READ: 'We are not slaves' - KZN nurses call for health MEC to be axed
Majola received a phone call from the KwaZulu-Natal department of health telling her that her application for work as an enrolled nursing assistant had been successful on the day she buried her 65-year-old mother.
The mother of an 11-year-old boy will begin working at the Prince Mshiyeni Hospital on Monday.
"I'm overjoyed," she said.
"I'd like to thank President Cyril Ramaphosa and MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo for making our dreams come true," she added.
Gugu Mdlalose was placed at Wentworth Hospital after 14 years of not working since qualifying as a nurse.
"I am extremely grateful to Bab' Ramaphosa and the entire health team. May God bless you for all that you've done. We had become the laughing stock in the community," she said.
Ntombenhle Gazu, who lost her husband a year after their wedding, has been placed at Khombe Hospital.
"I am very grateful to Bab' Dhlomo who has taken me from wearing black mourning gear, and put me in a white nurses' uniform," she said.
MEC Dhlomo called it a "beautiful coincidence" that the placements took place around the same time that the initiator of the programme, Ramaphosa, was in the province.
Ramaphosa is currently in the province ahead of the governing party's manifesto launch this weekend.
"We would have loved for him to see this fruit of his sweat, because these nurses have been employed through the presidential stimulus package which was announced by him. Today, there are 300 families who have breadwinners," he said in a statement on Thursday.
Dhlomo said it was hoped that the recruitment of the nurses would also "bring meaning in terms of quality of service to our people".
The KwaZulu-Natal department of health said it would soon also announce the employment of porters (160 posts), general orderlies (160 posts), pharmacy assistants (50 posts) and artisans (15 posts) under the presidential stimulus package.
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