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- The health department welcomed the ruling that the interdict against its advertisement for NHI posts would not be heard as an urgent matter.
- The Gauteng High Court made the ruling on Thursday.
- Solidarity filed an urgent interdict on 12 October.
The health department has welcomed the high court ruling that the interdict against its advertisement of National Health Insurance (NHI) posts will not be heard as an urgent matter.
The department on Thursday said the Gauteng High Court dismissed the application with costs.
A spokesperson, Foster Mohale, said it sought to fill 44 positions as part of the process to establish a fully functional NHI branch, pending the finalisation of the NHI Bill in Parliament.
"The union filed an urgent court application in the Pretoria High Court on 12 October, preventing the department from making appointments of competent technical specialists to the NHI branch to assist with the preparations for the functioning of the NHI Fund. The judge has dismissed the application by Solidarity with costs," said Mohale.
Announcing its decision to file the urgent court interdict on 11 October, Solidarity said the advertisement of the vacancies before the NHI Bill passed the parliamentary process was unlawful.
It said advertising the vacancies before this process was concluded demonstrated the department's willingness to violate democratic processes and disregard the concerns of people opposed to the NHI.
READ | Sipho Masondo: NHI will not reform private and public healthcare. It will collapse it
Connie Mulder, the head of its Research Institute, said: "Solidarity and other interested parties have been trying all the way to take part in formal processes and to be a voice for rationality and reasonableness amid the government's ideological obsession, but this seems impossible.
"It appears that the government has its mind set on disregarding the concerns of the people affected by the NHI. As in the case of the state of disaster, it, unfortunately, looks as though the courts are again going to be the only way to get the government to make the rational decision," said Mulder.
On Thursday, Solidarity told News24 the court did not deal with the substantive merits of the issue and that it was disappointed by the outcome.
"The matter is self-evidently urgent. We are looking at possible further avenues and we may proceed with the further appeal of the judgment."
