Black graduates slam dental council

Some have had their careers in limbo for 12 years

- By Bongani Mdakane

More than 500 unemployed black graduates of the Tshwane, Durban and Cape Peninsula universities of technology have complained that unfair discrimination by the South African Dental Technicians Council (SADTC) has all but put paid to their career dreams.

The students, some of whom qualified a dozen years ago and remain unemployed, poured out their hearts in letters to the Presidency and the parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education in April 2022 about being frustrated in the job market.

"Since 2010, the SADTC has not registered black dental technicians from these universities even though they passed. We have even gone as far as approaching the South African Qualifications Authority and Council on Higher Education for help to no avail," reads the letter in part.