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Mogalakwena Health has launched urgent high court proceedings against health minister Aaron Motsoaledi, acting health department director-general Nicholas Crisp and Limpopo health authorities after a newly built R165m private hospital in Mokopane was prevented from opening.The private company argues the Limpopo department of health has unlawfully refused to conduct the final inspection needed to register the hospital after incorrectly interpreting the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling declaring the National Health Act’s Certificate of Need provisions unconstitutional.The application, filed in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, seeks an order compelling the provincial department to inspect the hospital within five days and issue the registration certificate required under Regulation 158 to allow the facility to begin operating.The case could become one of the first to test how provincial health departments should implement the Constitutional Court’s ruling where applications to establish private hospitals had already been approved before the judgment but final registration had not yet been completed.Read: EDITORIAL | Top court ruling on doctors shows good intentions are not enoughAccording to the court papers, the 65-bed hospital includes two operating theatres, an accident and emergency centre and specialist consulting suites. Construction, approved by the Limpopo department of health in October 2024, was completed in March 2026 at a cost of about R165m.“The Constitutional Court’s judgment has no bearing on the continued validity and operation of Regulation 158.”Mogalakwena Health says the final inspection was scheduled for June before provincial officials informed it that, following the Constitutional Court’s judgment in “Solidarity Trade Union and Others v Minister of Health and Others,” they could no longer conduct the inspection or issue a certificate of registration.In May, the Constitutional Court struck down sections 36 to 40 of the National Health Act, which introduced the Certificate of Need system. The court found the provisions were unconstitutional because they gave the health minister broad discretionary powers over where healthcare providers could establish or continue operating practices and facilities, while unjustifiably limiting the constitutional right to choose a trade, occupation or profession.The Certificate of Need provisions would have required private hospitals, clinics and healthcare practitioners to obtain government approval before establishing, expanding or continuing to operate healthcare facilities. The court suspended its declaration of invalidity for 24 months to allow parliament to remedy the defects. However, it granted interim relief preventing the provisions from being enforced in the meantime.Mogalakwena Health argues the judgment did not affect Regulation 158, which separately governs the inspection and registration of private hospitals.It contends the regulation remains legally valid and continues to require provincial health departments to inspect completed facilities and issue registration certificates where the prescribed requirements have been met.According to the application, the refusal to conduct the inspection has left a fully completed hospital standing idle.Without a registration certificate, the hospital cannot obtain accreditation with the Board of Healthcare Funders or complete other regulatory approvals needed before admitting patients. The company estimates it is losing about R105,000 a day while the hospital is unable to open.The application also argues the delay is denying residents of Mokopane and surrounding communities access to additional healthcare services in an area where medical facilities are limited.Before approaching the court, Mogalakwena Health says its attorneys wrote to Motsoaledi, Crisp and the Limpopo health authorities seeking clarification and demanding that the inspection proceed. The company alleges no substantive response was received.
