Deliwe Muriel Njongi v Member of the Executive Council, Department of Welfare, Eastern Cape

The applicant, Mrs Deliwe Muriel Njongi, received a disability grant from 1989 until November 1997, when payment was abruptly stopped without notice or reasons. A departmental official told her to re-apply. Her re-application succeeded only in July 2000, after which limited back-pay was made. Mrs Njongi later instituted High Court proceedings seeking to have the administrative decision terminating her grant set aside and to recover full arrear payments for the period November 1997 to July 2000. The High Court held the termination unconstitutional and rejected the State’s defence of prescription. On appeal, a Full Bench of the Eastern Cape High Court upheld the prescription defence and non-suited her. Having been refused leave to appeal by the Supreme Court of Appeal, she approached the Constitutional Court.

Leave to appeal was granted and the appeal was upheld. The order of the Full Court was set aside and replaced with an order dismissing the State’s prescription defence and effectively restoring the High Court’s relief in favour of Mrs Njongi.

This case is a leading authority on the interaction between prescription and unlawful administrative action in the context of social grants. It affirms that the State cannot rely on prescription to defeat claims arising from its own unconstitutional conduct and underscores the constitutional duties of organs of state when dealing with vulnerable grant beneficiaries.