The South African Nursing Council (SANC) has lost an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in a dispute over the start date of an approved programme for the long-established Khanyisa Nursing School in Johannesburg, and has been ordered to pay costs.
The Cape Times reports that Khanyisa had applied to the SANC for accreditation to offer two programmes: a diploma in nursing in the category ‘general nurse’; and a higher certificate in nursing in the category ‘auxiliary nurse’.
However, the approval was delayed: then, on 22 April 2022, the council told Khanyisa it had granted full accreditation to offer the programmes at four of its campuses. The accreditation letters SANC sent reflected the date of accreditation as 30-31 March 2022.
But this was made subject to a stipulation reading that: “The commencement date of the approved programme should be at the beginning of the academic year 2023 …”.
Khanyisa argued that if it were required to start the programmes only at the beginning of the following year, in 2023, this would be financially detrimental. The college’s attorneys wrote to the council and complained that the contested stipulation was unlawful.
The council was unmoved.
Khanyisa then brought an urgent application to the High Court to review and set aside the accreditations, and, in essence, to order the council to grant the accreditations, without the contested stipulation.
The court found that programme accreditation required the completion of 44 weeks of training within a conventional calendar year, defined as January to December. It ruled that Khanyisa had a legitimate expectation, based on previous accreditations, that its programmes would start on or before 4 July 2022.
It ordered that Khanyisa be permitted to start the programmes by July 2022 and that the council provide full accreditation.
Aggrieved by this decision, SANC approached the SCA.
The main issue was the interpretation of “any calendar year” in the regulations governing programme accreditation. The key question was whether it meant a full year from 1 January to 31 December.
Judge David Unterhalter found: “The meaning of ‘any calendar year’ in the regulations means a period that runs from a date of commencement in any given year and extends for 12 months from that date.
“Once that is so, the council was not required to impose the contested stipulation, and had no defensible reason to do so, given the extensive time it had taken to decide upon the accreditation of the programmes, and the evident need for the programmes to start as soon as possible after accreditation.
“The order made by the High Court is accordingly sustained. The appeal is dismissed with costs.”
SANC did not respond to requests for comment.
SANC judgment
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