About 120 people a week are bringing high court claims against Ncumisa Kondlo, the Eastern Cape MEC for Welfare, for failing to pay grants.
This week 28 people brought applications against the MEC in the Port Elizabeth High Court, bringing the total of similar cases in the past four weeks to 113 in that court alone. Similar cases are being heard in courts in Bisho, Umtata and Grahamstown.
Eastern Cape lawyers say they are preparing at least one class action against the provincial government. The lawyers say the cases indicate how the constitutional rights of many elderly, young and disabled people are infringed in the Eastern Cape.
Judge Andre Erasmus echoed their opinion in a judgement recently. Nontombi Ndevu had brought a case against the welfare MEC and her permanent secretary, Namhla Dekeda. The judge ruled that public servants under the MEC’s control had failed to perform their duties properly.
”Many persons in this province are suffering real hardship through the ineffectiveness of the public service at provincial level,” he said, describing the case as ”the tip of the iceberg”.
Ndevu had applied for a disability grant last November, but had had no response from the Department of Welfare by March. She then took her case to court. The Eastern Cape Department of Welfare filed notice of opposition in April, but withdrew it in July.
Her legal fees were mounting and she could not afford to continue with the case. She then heard that her application for a grant had been refused, but applied to the court for a cost order.
Erasmus said it appeared the provincial government had opposed her case to give the department time to process the claim. He said the tactic had added to Ndevu’s legal costs and ordered the provincial government to pay them.
The judge said he was concerned about the legal costs of these matters.
Hundreds of similar cases have been heard in Eastern Cape courts and thousands are being prepared for court, according to local lawyers.
Robert Martindale, a Port Elizabeth lawyer who is dealing with hundreds of similar cases, said he had seen many cases where unreasonable delays in the processing of grants had been held to be infringements of the applicants’ constitutional rights.
Gloria Jayiya applied for a disability grant in 1999. The application was approved, but civil servants did nothing to start payments. In May last year the high court ordered that the payments be made. Three months later Jayiya launched contempt proceedings against the department for not paying the grant. Jayiya lost the case in March, but was granted leave to appeal in May.
Martindale believes a successful appeal will have far-reaching impli-cations for many thousands of disabled and elderly people in the Eastern Cape whose grants have been delayed.
He has also prepared papers for a class action suit against the provincial Department of Welfare. The Black Sash has been approached for financial help.
United Democratic Movement provincial spokesperson for welfare, Christian Martin said Kondlo had turned her department into a money-making racket for the legal profession. ”She is no longer running her department. It is being run by the courts. Our premier should recognise this and get rid of her.”
Donald Smiles, the Democratic Alliance’s provincial spokesperson on welfare, said it was unfortunate that thousands of people’s only redress was to take the welfare department to court to get what was rightfully theirs.
He said the cases dealt with this week in Port Elizabeth had cost about R100 000.
Kondlo said ”The UDM’s focus is skew. I am doing successful payments for 600 000 beneficiaries. They are focusing only on a few human errors.”
Gcobani Maswana, spokesperson for the Department of Welfare, said the MEC recognised the problems in her department and had set up a task team to implement an intervention plan.
”The biggest problems are fraudulent doctors responsible for making assessments in disability applications, touting by lawyers among the community and loan sharks collecting money from pay points on applicants’ behalf,” he said. — newzwise