Rhodes wins first battle against anti-vaxxers

Rhodes University will proceed with its Covid-19 mandatory vaccine requirement for all staff, students and visitors to its campus after an urgent high court application to interdict its implementation was on Wednesday struck off the court roll.

The application floundered on the first legal technical requirement of urgency.

Judge Murray Lowe ruled that Makhanda Against Mandates (MAM), the organisation that brought the urgent application, had known about the university’s approval of the vaccine mandate since October last year but had waited until January this year to resort to court in an “urgent” bid to interdict its implementation.

He said the urgency was largely “self-created” and the timelines imposed on Rhodes to respond to a substantial, complex application running to almost 700 pages were stringent, unreasonable and unsustainable.

He ordered MAM to pay the wasted costs of the application.

MAM, consisting of a small group of Rhodes University students, parents and employees led by philosophy lecturer Francis Williamson, intended applying to court to review and set aside the university’s mandatory Covid-19 vaccine policy.

Pending that review, MAM sought to urgently interdict the implementation of the mandate which the organisation claims is nonsensical and unconstitutional.

It also sought to interdict the university from putting on unpaid leave any unvaccinated staff.

Rhodes confirmed it had implemented the mandate from early January and would continue to do so.

It does not seem to have impacted greatly on registration of students or on staff attendance.

“To date, over 97% of staff and 95% of the students have submitted their vaccination certificates to the university,” spokesperson Veliswa Mhlope said.

She said applications for exemption on medical or other grounds were considered on a weekly basis.

Vaccines, rapid tests and booster shots were available on campus.

She said there was incontrovertible scientific evidence showing that vaccines were safe and the most effective way to protect everyone from the severe impact of Covid-19.

“The university places high priority on the health, safety and wellbeing of students, staff and the Makhanda community.

“This judgment enables the university to fully focus its energy on the pursuit of its mission and purpose in a safer and more conducive environment.”

Williamson said they were disappointed with the outcome even though the judge had given a lucid, careful, comprehensive explanation for his decision.

MAM would have to consider its position as it was a small organisation and despite great support from all over the world, its members did not have “deep pockets”.

He said he could not immediately say whether they would proceed with the review application, adding that none of the real issues had been addressed or resolved.

“And they are urgent. There are students who haven’t finished their degrees and can’t register. There are members of staff on leave as they cannot go back to work.

“There is urgency in terms of the rights and freedoms of conscience and opinion. It is our brief to fight for these things so we will likely continue [with the review]. There are those who have been hurt and damaged by this [mandate] decision.”

He said he was unable to immediately say what he would do on a personal level.

He cannot go onto campus as an unvaccinated person. He said he appeared to have been placed on leave by Rhodes.

He said he continued to reject the vaccine mandate.

“Even if I were to vaccinate, I would reject the mandate. It is a matter of conscience.”