Reply:

 

1. (a) There are 10 nursing colleges in the Republic. One located in each of the nine provinces and the 10th being the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS). These colleges have 45 campuses and 40 sub-campuses located in district and subdistrict level in each of the provinces to ensure access to nursing education by local communities

(b) (i) None of these colleges were shut down in the past two financial years.

(ii) Not applicable

1. The colleges are running effectively and smoothly, phasing in new programmes whilst phasing out the legacy (old) programmes in compliance with relevant legislation guiding nursing education. While the accreditation process by the Council for Higher Education (CHE) for some programmes has been slower than expected, department is communicating with the CHE to expedite the accreditation of these programmes.

1. (a) Table 1 overleaf reflects the number of graduates who were produced by South African Nursing Colleges in the past five-years in question:

Table 1. Number of graduates produced by South African Nursing Colleges in the past five years

Province	Name of the College of Nursing	Graduates produced per year:
		2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
Eastern Cape	Lilitha College of Nursing	358	331	426	336	322	1773
Free State	Free State School of Nursing	165	155	144	152	145	761
Gauteng	Gauteng College of Nursing	620	614	507	593	847	3181
KwaZulu Natal	KwaZulu Natal College of Nursing	316	533	393	512	164	1918
Limpopo	Limpopo College of Nursing	218	188	200	235	169	1010
Mpumalanga	Mpumalanga College of Nursing	322	76	304	243	146	1091
Northern Cape	Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College	25	44	18	46	13	146
North West	North West College of Nursing	275	130	118	200	269	992
Western Cape	Western Cape College of Nursing	243	250	77	34	6	610
SAMHS	SAMHS Nursing College	61	40	56	14	41	212
Total	11 694

(b) The following table reflects the number of eligible graduates who were absorbed into statutory posts for Professional Nursing Community Service in the past five years (The numbers below are inclusive graduates from Nursing Colleges and Universities)

Table 2.

Province	Graduates absorbed as Community Service Nurses in each year:
	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
Eastern Cape	582	514	621	551	587	2855
Free State	217	195	211	173	164	960
Gauteng	683	781	677	655	970	3766
KwaZulu Natal	648	700	684	687	439	3158
Limpopo	171	212	276	323	279	1261
Mpumalanga	265	208	217	295	251	1236
Northern Cape	74	53	102	74	92	395
North West	390	304	394	471	268	1827
Western Cape	384	381	364	323	364	1816
SAMHS	61	40	56	14	41	212
Total	17 486

NB. After completing Community Service, Professional Nurses are not automatically absorbed into permanent posts. They need to apply and compete for advertised positions either Public Service or Private Sector. Based on the individuals performance during the selection process the favourable candidate is appointed into a post.

END.

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