A private nursing institution in Durban is facing serious scrutiny after allegations surfaced that it has been enrolling students for the past two years despite lacking full accreditation from the South African Nursing Council (SANC), a requirement necessary to legally offer training.
The issue came to light during a recent meeting involving students, parents and management at St. Mary’s Nursing College. According to Andile Mbeje, the KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA), the college currently holds only conditional accreditation, which does not permit it to run any nursing programmes.
Earlier this month, the Nursing Council instructed the college to immediately halt its nursing diploma course. The accreditation complications stem from nationwide curriculum changes introduced in 2019, which required all private nursing colleges to reapply for approval. Mbeje explains that during this transition, all private institutions were barred from conducting nursing programmes until they received full approval.
“All the private colleges were suspended from doing any nursing programmes until the South African Nursing Council approved them. Right now, St Mary’s is not approved and not accredited fully. They are only conditionally accredited, provided they submit those documents. And sadly, their conditional accreditation is supposed to run up until the end of 2026,” says Mbeje.
The situation affects approximately 60 students, whose families have reportedly paid R70,000 annually in registration fees. Concerns escalated when it emerged that students had been placed in clinical settings, working with patients for up to 20 weeks each year, despite not being registered with the council.
Student Representative Council deputy president Nokulunga Xulu expresses alarm over the potential legal consequences. “As students, we’ve reached a consensus that we don’t want to continue with our studies because if any Nursing Council official or anyone finds us in a clinical facility operating without accreditation, we could be liable for a fine or even arrested. That is very alarming for us. So we decided it’s best to just suspend it,” she said.
Students have since chosen to halt their studies due to fears of legal repercussions and uncertainty about the validity of their training. Meanwhile, the college’s management is expected to meet with Nursing Council officials in the coming days to address the matter. Attempts to obtain comment from the college principal were unsuccessful.
