Johannesburg — EASTERN Cape social development MEC Sam Kwelita had by yesterday not responded to directions from Chief Justice Pius Langa that he show cause why he should not be ordered to pay from his own pocket the legal costs of a disabled woman whose grant was stopped without notice for nearly three years.

When the Constitutional Court heard the case of Deliwe Njongi this month, the judges questioned the province's spending of millions in taxpayers' money to oppose a R5000 claim by Njongi. Judges Sandile Ngcobo and Zac Yacoob asked counsel for Kwelita Glenn Goosen why the MEC should not pay the costs out of his own pocket.

Yacoob said millions of rand were spent by the province defending the case that was indefensible.

Ngcobo said that the amount did not justify proceedings in the high court.

After the hearing, Langa issued further directions calling on Kwelita to show cause by affidavit why, irrespective of the outcome, Kwelita should not be ordered to pay costs in Njongi's application on the scale as between attorney and client.

The directions issued by Langa last week required the MEC to respond by Wednesday. There were no papers filed with the court by yesterday afternoon.

"If the respondent's affidavit is to the effect that decisions about opposition to (Njongi's) case and the way in which the case was conducted on behalf of the province were not taken by him, but by another person or other people, each person identified in (Kwelita's) affidavit must also show cause by affidavit why ... they should not be ordered to pay (Njongi's) costs."

Kwelita assumed the portfolio from Thoko Xasa only in May this year. Xasa had been MEC since May 2005.

Njongi's disability grant payments were stopped in November 1997 and reinstated in July 2000 after she was told to reapply.

She was given R1100 back pay when she should have been given R15200.

Njongi applied to the Port Elizabeth High Court in 2005 to review and set aside the decision to stop her grant, and for an order for her back pay.

A full bench of the high court ruled that the grant was an outstanding debt, and that the debt had prescribed because it arose more than three years before Njongi had brought the case.

Njongi's application to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein for leave to appeal against the judgment of the high court was dismissed in May.

Langa said the costs included costs in the review court, in the appeal before the full bench, in the application for leave to appeal and the costs incurred in the proceedings of the Constitutional Court.