The DA submitted an application to have access to information - in accordance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) - to 12 medical schools across the country. Member of Parliament, Chantel King, says the purpose of these applications is for the party to get clarity on whether the criteria was fair and non-discriminatory.

With only days left in which the universities should respond, only three have submitted the requested information.

King says respondents were asked to provide, amongst others, a precise description of the way in which the racial identity of applicants is used as a criterion for admissions at any point during the admissions process; and the number of applicants who were turned down for the 2021 academic year.

She says the country is always faced with a shortage of doctors and that it does not make sense that hundreds of qualifying students, each year, are denied the opportunity to study medicine.

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