Judgement has been reserved on a Treatment Action Campaign application for the reinstatement of 41 dismissed Khayelitsha health workers.
Cape High Court’s Justice Siraj Desai said at the end of an afternoon of legal argument on Friday that he would give a ruling ”with or without reasons” at 10am on Tuesday.
The TAC and a group of Khayelitsha residents, some of them HIV-positive, are seeking the reinstatement of the workers fired on June 11 after allegedly participating in the public-service strike.
It contends that the dismissals infringe on the constitutional rights of patients to health services and to life and dignity. Thirty of the dismissed strikers are from one facility, the Site B Day Hospital, where they constituted almost half the staff.
One in three pregnant women in Khayelitsha is HIV-positive.
Lead counsel in the government’s legal team, Marumo Moerane, argued on Friday that the dismissals were not only lawful, but ”absolutely necessary”.
Not only were the 41 illegally taking part in the strike, as they were essential-service workers, but they were also preventing fellow employees from working, by threatening and physically attacking them.
They were also preventing the public from entering the premises of health facilities.
”We submit the state took lawful action as it was entitled to,” he said.
”If the dismissals are lawful, how can they possibly constitute a violation of the rights of others?” he asked. – Sapa