The interest group Free State for Choice (FS4C) withdrew its court application against the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Covid-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy before the court date op Monday (25/04).
In January, FS4C launched an application against the UFS before the Free State High Court in which it sought an urgent interdict preventing the institution from implementing its regulations and policy pending a review of the UFS’s decision to do so. The UFS opposed the application.
On 11 February, the application for urgent relief was struck from the urgent roll. As a result, the policy remained in force.
The application for review was set down before a full bench of the high court on 23 March. The full bench refused to hear the application because the FS4C had failed to file sufficient copies of the record required. The parties agreed to the application being set down before the full bench on 25 April, before the FS4C withdrew.
According to a statement by the UFS, the institution sees this as an acknowledgment by the FS4C that the prospects of it succeeding with the application were extremely slim and it reinforces the view of the UFS that the application was ill-considered and should never have been instituted by the FS4C.
The policy remains in force.
Since the implementation, the UFS has established that the policy is flexible and capable of adaptation as circumstances change.
