Barry Streek
Thousands of pensioners and other grant recipients will receive payments totalling at least R1-billion after the government accepted a court order invalidating a 1998 regulation that limited back pay to three months.
The government decision to limit back pay made in March 1998 by the then minister of welfare, Geraldine Fraser-Moloketi was challenged in the Transvaal division of the high court by the Black Sash Trust and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC).
After a three-year legal battle, the court has issued a consent order ruling that 1998 regulations are invalid and has ordered the government to pay costs.
The Black Sash’s Isobel Frye says thousands will benefit from the ruling as anyone entitled to more than three months’ arrears in grants after April 1 1998 is now entitled to claim.
Frye adds that during legal negotiations, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said he feared more than R1-billion was at issue. Frye predicts “chaos” when claimants apply for what is due to them.
The Fraser-Moloketi ruling prevented any claims for more than three months’ arrears, even if the department was at fault and the delays in payments had not been caused by the applicant.
The Black Sash has written to all provincial MECs and the national department notifying them of the court ruling and offering assistance through its advice offices.
However, it fears the state infrastructure is inadequate to handle the expected flood of demands
The trustees of the Black Sash, represented by the LRC’s Geoff Budlender, applied in the high court for an order to declare invalid the amendment to Regulation 11 (a), which came into effect on April 1 1998. The application was based on a number of constitutional challenges.
Budlender said they challenged the regulations on the basis that they were in conflict with the constitutional rights of social assistance and the progressive realisation of these rights, they were contrary to just administrative action and they were irrational.
Before the regulation a successful applicant for a grant had the right to payment from the date on which his or her application was attested, no matter how long the department took to process the application.
Sheena Duncan, chair of the Black Sash Trust, voiced the hope that this would be the last time that an issue relating to people’s constitutional rights would be resolved through the courts.
Meanwhile, Evidence wa ka Ngobeni reports that the Eastern Cape Department of Welfare this week axed 15 officials for allegedly defrauding the department of millions of rands through a “ghost pensioners” scam.
A departmental inquiry found them guilty of fraud and corruption last week.
Provincial welfare officials said the axed officials were part of a syndicate that allegedly stole more than R18-million from the department’s welfare grant kitty between 1994 and 1998.
The department said the accused officials allegedly defrauded the department by using pension vouchers for dead people and depositing the money into their bank accounts.
The officials were employed as clerks in the department and had access to its pension payout system.
The department is making an effort to recover the money it lost due to the scam, Eastern Cape welfare department spokesperson Gcobani Maswana said.
Maswana said some of the fired officials have had their assets, such as houses and cars, seized by the department.
The axed officials were suspended three months ago and are now facing criminal charges. Most are out on R5000 bail.
Maswana said the scam has crippled the department’s service delivery programmes. It also created the perception that the Eastern Cape welfare department is “corrupt” and has created huge backlogs in its budget.
“It is not acceptable that people who are supposed to get their grants are not getting them because of scams by a few officials,” Maswana said.