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The interest group, Free State for Choice (FS4C), this week withdrew its court application against the University of the Free State’s (UFS) COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy.

In January 2022, 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 COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy (the Policy) pending a review of the UFS’s decision to implement the Policy. The UFS opposed the application.

On 11 February 2022, the application for urgent relief was struck from the urgent roll on the basis that the application was not urgent. 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 2022. The full bench refused to hear the application because FS4C had failed to file sufficient copies of the record required by the full bench to hear the review.

The parties agreed to the application being set down before the full bench on 25 April 2022.

Before the hearing of 25 April 2022, FS4C withdrew its application, and this withdrawal will be made an order of court.

This is an acknowledgment by FS4C that the prospects of it succeeding with the application were extremely low and reinforces the view of the UFS that the application was ill-considered and should never have been instituted by FS4C.

The Policy is and remains in force.

Since the implementation of the Policy, the UFS has acknowledged that the Policy is flexible and capable of adaptation as circumstances change. This remains the case.

The Policy has been subject to regular review and was amended recently to cater for changes to the regulatory framework, as well as to take into account the most recent scientific and medical evidence available. It needs to be emphasised that none of these changes were made as a result of anything contained in the papers filed by FS4C.

The UFS remains committed to ensuring a safe campus environment for all of its staff, students and other persons that need to enter our campuses.