Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37939

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Subject: search.filters.subject.UCTDSubject: search.filters.subject.SDG-8: Decent work and economic growthSubject: search.filters.subject.SDG-3: Good health and well-being

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    The constitutionality of COVID 19 Vaccination Policies and its implications on the right to freedom of religion in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Karuaihe, Janee Raahua Siegfried
    Covid-19 was declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a disease affecting people over a large geographical area. It caused severe illness to millions of people around the world and the death of over four million people. This impact on people had a direct effect on employers, employees and the workplace. Religions and those practicing their religion weren’t spared from the impact of Covid-19. To control the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace, employers were obligated to take steps to keep the workplace safe and to ensure that businesses can reopen in a manner that would ensure the safety of employees and the public. One of the measures taken by employers to ensure the safety of the workplace was the introduction of vaccination policies. These policies varied from workplace to workplace, but a consistent feature was that employees were required to be vaccinated to return to the workplace. If such workplace were to be implemented without exception, it would fail to recognise the fact that certain religious practices and certain people who practice various religions do not permit vaccines, and where they do, only certain vaccines are allowed. As there is no specific legislation governing the implementation of vaccination policies in the workplace, many employees across South Africa believed these policies unjustifiably limited rights protected by the Constitution, including the right to religion. The courts have accepted that vaccination policies may have the effect of limiting rights that are protected in terms of the Bill of Rights. Still, such limitations may be justified where the employer takes steps and introduces such a policy where necessary to ensure the safety of the workplace.
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    Realising the right to healthcare: the legislative frameworks pertaining to private health establishments and private healthcare funding models in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Labuschagne-Kom, Lindsie; Mahery, Prinslean; Martin, Blake
    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises access to healthcare as a fundamental human right and is guaranteed by the South African Constitution. An analysis of this right reveals that it comprises of two main components, namely financing and delivery of healthcare services. These are fulfilled by the government in the public sector and by private healthcare funders and private health establishments in the private sector. However, an analysis reveals that access to healthcare is substantively inequitable due to the fragmentation of the health system and unveils significant inefficiencies in the private sector that impeded realisation of this right. This dissertation examines the cause of this fragmentation and the inefficiencies within the private healthcare funders and private health establishments market. It investigates how these issues can be resolved to realise the right to healthcare. This study applied a qualitative desktop review of governmental policies, direct and incidental legislation, and multidisciplinary fields of academic reviews such as competition, healthcare, constitutional law and international policies to evaluate the effect of historical, contemporary and prospective policies and legislation, on access to healthcare. This analysis reveals that access to healthcare was historically manipulated to achieve political ideology through a legislative framework that provided the foundation for private funding models and private health establishments to flourish. This occurred at the expense of the public sector and embedded the fragmentation and inefficiencies in the health system. Notwithstanding the enactment of the Constitution, which envisioned a transformed and equal society, access to healthcare remains substantively inequitable. This is due to governmental failings to regulate these stakeholders. Given this state of affairs, the government intends to enact legislative reform through the National Health Insurance Bill to meet its constitutional mandate to realise the right to healthcare. An analysis of the Bill’s framework, however, reveals that it will have a cascading effect with the collapse of the private healthcare funders and private health establishment markets. This will ultimately cause a regression in access to healthcare and impede the practical realisation of this right. An investigation into alternative mechanisms to fulfil the right to healthcare reveals that incorporation and collaboration with private healthcare funders and private health establishments is a pragmatic alternative to the National Health Insurance Bill that will aid with the practical realisation and vindication of this right. These findings indicate the need for government to improve its stewardship of the health system and provide pragmatic solutions to reform the legislative and regulatory frameworks governing these stakeholders to resolve inefficiencies and to foster collaboration to fulfil the right to healthcare.
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    Regulating mental illness in the South African workplace — lessons from Canada
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-12-20) Mylchreest, Aidan; Pillay, Karmini
    In post-Covid-19 South Africa, an already stressed population has returned to work. A mental health crisis is emerging and this is evident amongst employees who are struggling with mental illnesses such as depression. In these circumstances, both employers and employees will need guidance when faced with mental illness in the workplace. The recent matter of Jansen v Legal Aid South Africa (2018) 39 ILJ 2024 (LC) (‘Jansen’) is an example of a dispute that arose out of allegations of unfair discrimination and unfair dismissal, due to an employee’s depressive condition. This paper will examine the decisions of the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court in Jansen with a view to analyse the approach of the respective courts, in the context of disability and unfair discrimination. This paper identifies the shortcomings of the Jansen judgements and argues that both courts missed an opportunity to provide certainty to both employers and employees. This paper goes on to consider Canada’s progressive approach to mental health and the legal mechanisms developed to provide protection to employees. Canadian jurisprudence will serve as a source of comparison, with a view to extract lessons in managing mental illness in the workplace. Finally, this paper recommends that legislators consider Canada’s legal approach to mental illness with a view to develop a Code of Good Practice focused on mental illness in the workplace