The increase in the number of cases where the Eastern Cape provincial government is contesting the right of poor citizens to access social grants suggests that the majority party is at war with the poor, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Friday.
Writing in her weekly newsletter, Zille cited a recent decision by the Eastern Cape provincial government to contest a pensioner’s Constitutional Court application to access a welfare grant, as proof of the government’s insensitivity to the plight of the poor.
”The state has become so indifferent and insensitive that legal action has virtually become part of the process of applying for a state grant. Is government engaged in a deliberate war of attrition against its poorest supporters?” she asked.
Deliwe Njongi, who has been embroiled in protracted court battles against the provincial government over her grant, was made to suffer despite the fact she was a deserving recipient.
”The African National Congress [ANC] is failing its own constituency. Njongi represents one of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in a province — the second-poorest in the country — long regarded by the ANC as its heartland,” she said.
Most critically, the provincial government is reneging on its obligations under the Constitution, ”which makes it clear that the public service must put the people and their needs first”.
Njongi’s case, Zille said, is just the tip of the iceberg — there are thousands of other, similar cases before the courts.
”Last year, the DA drew attention to the plight of Nontembiso Kate, who was likewise stonewalled by the provincial government and obliged to endure costly and protracted litigation in her search for redress.
”According to the Public Service Accountability Monitor, in the Eastern Cape alone the welfare department paid out over R52-million in legal costs opposing, and invariably losing, such cases in court [2001-2004],” she said.
The current ANC succession battle, Zille said, makes it difficult for ANC politicians to act against people who deliberately put poor people through all manner of difficulties.
”President Thabo Mbeki now depends on many of these offending office-bearers for his re-election to the presidency of the ANC,” she said. — Sapa