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The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union in Gauteng is appalled by the exorbitant tuition fee increase at Gauteng College of Nursing (GCON).  Student nurses were shocked to find out that the fees have gone up. Last year they paid R3129 for the course. That amount has now increased to a whopping R11465 which students are expected to pay in full if they want to be able to register. The College increased the tuition fee by more than 200%! We totally reject the senseless and exorbitant increase of tuition fees imposed on students. At the same time, returning students have been told they owe money to the institution because the fees have increased and as a result, the institution is withholding their academic results. This is extortion and we reject this with the contempt it deserves!

The Gauteng Health Department is responsible for the sudden and shocking increase in the fees. HAITU has written to the principal of GCON, Ms. Nozibele Gidimisana as well as the MEC for Gauteng Health, Mrs. Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, and the HOD in the Gauteng Department of Health, Dr. Nomonde Nolutshungu. We made it clear in our correspondence that we will not tolerate the extortion of students and we need to stress that this outrageous fee increase, is in our view, done for the personal enrichment of officials within the Gauteng Department of Health. There is no reasonable explanation which can be given to justify this inflated fee increase.

The Department of Health in Gauteng has been milking nursing students through the procurement system. Student nurses are compelled to use certain service providers which are approved by them, in order to get basics such as uniforms, learning material and all other items which are needed for their education. This is why the Department of Health has failed to allow nursing colleges to be handed over to the Council for Higher Education (CHE). As of 2019 all nursing colleges are supposed to be part of CHE, but that has not happened. The Department of Health has been an obstacle to that transition because if that happens, they will no longer be able to milk these students as they have been doing for decades.

HAITU has zero tolerance for any injustices that are levelled against any student in the health science faculty and at any institution of higher learning in South Africa. We have waged campaigns at Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College in the Northern Cape, and we have exposed the South African Nursing Council for its failures. We are not intimidated by any official, particularly those who think they are immune from accountability.

We demand that the Department of Health in Gauteng must urgently resolve this matter. We have given them seven days to reduce the fees and allow all students to register. If they fail to do so, we will mobilize our forces to picket and protest at the gates until they withdraw this absurd proposal. At the same time, we demand that a forensic investigation into the Nursing colleges must be done. There is a complete misuse of funds and this must be exposed.

Issued by The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union