Healthcare professionals are first in line in the South African vaccine rollout. It's possible that not protecting against moderate to severe illness is an inadequate outcome for this group. Skipping this group in order to vaccinate others may not be politically palatable.
Skipping this group is not an inevitable consequence of continuing to uze the AZ vaccine. The rate at which this group can be vaccinated with other vaccines is an orthogonal issue.
people in other groups may be unwilling to take the AZ vaccine, but so long as they are not being coerced to do so, this is not an issue.
