Durban - Lawyers for a man who did not complete his medical degree but worked as an intern for 14 months want the Pietermaritzburg High Court to compel the University of KwaZulu-Natal to allow him to be registered so he can complete a final course year or redo modules he did not pass in 2016.
Reshal Dayanand applied for a second year of study at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in 2006. He had abandoned his studies at the Walter Sisulu University in the same year following an alleged hijacking which left him traumatised.
At the time, the UKZN curriculum differed from the Walter Sisulu University one. He, therefore, had to repeat his first year at UKZN in 2007.
Between 2007 and 2010 he completed four years out of five of his studies towards his medical degree. When he was to start his final year in 2011, Dayanand claimed to have suffered from stress and anxiety related to his hijacking in 2006.
This led to his deregistration while he received treatment. In 2015 he returned to UKZN to complete his final year but did not complete a six-week block in Integrated Medicine 3 and also had a supplementary Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OSCE) 3 oral exam.
He allegedly passed the exam at a later stage but the Integrated Medicine 3 requirement was outstanding. In 2016 Dayanand applied for a medical internship at the Northdale Hospital and produced a UKZN academic record showing that he had completed Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees.
He was employed by the hospital and he worked for 14 months, earning more than R600 000 during that period.
However, in March 2017 UKZN received correspondence from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) stating that it had discovered that Dayanand had used fraudulent results to be registered as a medical intern and that they were in the process of deregistering him.
He was suspended from the hospital pending an investigation. An investigation conducted by UKZN revealed that Dayanand was not on the 2016 graduation list. UKZN also said it had no knowledge of who had verified his qualification prior to registering him with the HPCSA.
A case of fraud was opened with the police.
Laurence Combrink SC for Dayanand told the court that his client had not been offered an opportunity to be heard. Combrink said Dayanand had been in limbo for five years, yet he had never been expelled by UKZN or subjected to a disciplinary process.
“He wants to finish his qualification. We want a situation where he moves forward with this process because his career path has been left in limbo,” said Combrink.
“There has been a continuous string of communication and correspondence and we are asking for my client to be re-enrolled.
Judge, I am forcing a decision out of your hand so this man can continue with his future.”
Advocate Murray Pitman, for UKZN and the HPCSA, stressed that when a student had been absent for a certain period of time they were required to re-apply with the institution.
He said Dayanand had never applied and he should have submitted his application for consideration like any other student.
The court reserved judgment
SUNDAY TRIBUNE