Nursing Council loses appeal in SCA over programme dispute

THE South African Nursing Council (SANC) has lost an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) related to a dispute over the commencement date of an approved programme for the Khanyisa Nursing School (Khanyisa).

Khanyisa, located in Johannesburg, had for many years been accredited to train nurses and applied to SANC for accreditation to offer two nursing programmes: a diploma in nursing in the category ‘general nurse’; and a higher certificate in nursing in the category ‘auxiliary nurse’. The approval of these applications was long delayed. On April 22, 2022, the council notified Khanyisa that it had granted full accreditation to offer the programmes at four of its campuses.

However, the letters of accreditation sent by the council reflected the date of accreditation as March 30-31, 2022. This was made subject to a stipulation, which read that: ‘the commencement date of the approved programme should be at the beginning of the academic year 2023 ... ’.

The contested stipulation was not acceptable to Khanyisa. Arguing that if they were required to commence the programmes at the beginning of the following year, in 2023, this would have been financially detrimental to them. Khanyisa’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 Khanyisa the accreditations, without the contested stipulation.

The high court found that program accreditation required the completion of 44 weeks of training within a conventional calendar year, defined as January to December. However, it ruled that Khanyisa had a legitimate expectation, based on previous accreditations, that their programs would start on or before July 4, 2022. The high court ordered that Khanyisa was permitted to commence the programs 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 program accreditation. The key question was whether it meant a full year from January 1 to December 31.

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 commence 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 by deadline.