Gauteng health granted right to appeal court order on cancer patient backlog

The Gauteng health department has been granted leave to appeal a judgment in favour of the Cancer Alliance in March this year — allowing the department to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal. 

“The Cancer Alliance and SECTION27 will oppose the appeal and will continue to insist that the Gauteng department of health comply with the interim order, which in our view is not affected by the appeal process,” said SECTION 27’s Khanyisa Mapipa.

The court ordered that the department was compelled to provide radiation oncology services to cancer patients on a backlog list. This was to be done with money set aside for this purpose by the National Treasury. The department was also ordered to submit progress reports to the court detailing plans to clear the backlog — believed to number about 3,000 patients built up in recent years. 

Mapipa said while they had anticipated the possibility that the department would appeal the ruling, they were saddened by the development and saw it as a strategy by the department to buy time and delay the matter. 

“In the meantime, we plan to insist that the department continue to act in accordance with the interim court order that instructs them to provide radiation and oncology services to patients,” she said, describing it as an instruction to the department to provide lifesaving treatment with money ringfenced for this exact purpose. 

“The court order lays out what needs to be done, and should not be met with an appeal,” Mapipa said, explaining that Cancer Alliance had asked for an interim order to stop the health department from spending money on a tender for planning services when it should rather be spent on treatment. 

She questioned whether the department was appealing the case because it felt its rights were being violated, or because they no longer had the funds and were unable to comply with the court order. 

“It is possible that this case will go to the Appeal Court where they will read the court record and throw the matter out. But what it does mean is that the matter may only be heard in 2026, which gives them time to stall. So we are going to ask that patients continue to be assisted so long,” said Mapipa. 

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