About 400 nurses in Limpopo have been without permanent jobs since they fully qualified in January, despite the shortage of healthcare professionals in the province.

This is according to the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa).

The nursing union has been demanding that the department of health in Limpopo hire the nurses, most of whom graduated as qualified nurses in 2017.

After qualifying, the nurses spent a year completing mandatory community service at various healthcare centres and hospitals. Since then, most of them have not found permanent jobs.