The Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA) in partnership with Walter Sisulu University (WSU) will host the CMSA admission ceremony on 15 April 2025 Mthatha.
Chief Executive Officer of the CMSA, Prof Eric Buch, said “The CMSA Admission Ceremony is a highlight on our calendar when we are granted the opportunity to honour our candidates, on the successful completion of their examinations.”
63 of the 1356 medical specialists who successfully passed the CMSA examinations in 2024, have chosen to be admitted into one of the 29 Constituent Colleges of the CMSA at the Mthatha Admission Ceremony this year. They represent a portion of the 183 candidates in the Eastern Cape who obtained CMSA Fellowships, certificates and diplomas. “There is no doubt that at this ceremony, we not only celebrate the wonderful achievements of our candidates who are now medical specialists, but we also showcase medicine in the Eastern Cape” added Prof Buch.
The medical specialists who obtained their qualifications in the Eastern Cape include 21 specialists and 8 sub-specialists as well as 154 diplomates. The new members span 7 medical specialties and 6 sub-specialties.
In pursuit of its commitment to advance the standards of medical practice in underserved areas the CMSA offers 20 postgraduate diplomas. The successful candidates are able to bring greater expertise to medical practice in critical fields such as HIV care and mental health and in neglected areas such as geriatric medicine, allergology, ophthalmology and forensic pathology. The Diploma in Family Medicine enhances general practice. Diplomas that improve skills in hospitals, especially those without specialists and in rural hospitals are offered in anaesthetics, child health, obstetrics, orthopaedics, surgery and internal medicine, improving the standard of care for the most vulnerable of our people. Frontline care is advanced by the Diploma in Primary Emergency Care, critical given the high levels of trauma and acute medical cases presenting at our hospitals
“One cannot become a specialist in South Africa without passing a CMSA examination and to enter you must have done 4 – 5 years of supervised training in an academic hospital like Nelson Mandela Academic hospital The supervised training includes procedures and rotations that cover different subjects,” said Prof Buch. He further added that CMSA is the accredited national examining body for the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and that the examiners are drawn from all universities in South Africa.
The sub-specialists are medical specialists who do a further two-year training in a specific sub-specialty in the discipline. To become a sub specialist, you must have been at university for a minimum of 12 years – 6 years as an undergraduate to become a medical doctor, four more years to become a specialist and a minimum of two years to become a sub-specialist.
The admission ceremony in Mthatha is the first of seven ceremonies planned in six cities throughout South Africa. Candidates will also be admitted at ceremonies in Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Limpopo.
The event will be live-streamed and links to view the proceedings will be made available later this week.
