IT WILL take the Social Development Department at least 18 months to clear the national backlog of disability grant appeals, currently standing at an unbelievable 66000.

This is the department's response to a substantial high court class action launched by the Black Sash and 24 disabled people from the Eastern Cape.

The 24 people are seeking to alleviate their own plight as well as that of thousands of desperate disability grant (DG) applicants whose applications for DGs have been rejected by the department's implementing agency, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).

Thousands have been waiting in vain for up to two years for an appeal hearing against the department's decision.

The 24 applicants are also victims of the massive systemic appeals backlog within the office of Social Development Minister Edna Molewa and the tribunal she has appointed to hear appeals.

Two clients of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Grahamstown, which is representing the Black Sash in court, died from their disabilities many months after lodging their appeals - without ever knowing the outcome and without ever benefiting from the disability grants the Black Sash and LRC say they were entitled to.

Not only do the applicants want the court to order that their appeals be determined within 14 days of the court ordering them to do so, but they want the high court to order that the department devise and implement a programme to clear the existing appeal backlog within three months and ensure that all future appeals are determined without "undue delay".

In its replying affidavit, the Social Development Department sets out its capacity, resource and administrative constraints that led to the fiasco.

Departmental DG Vusi Madonsela said the tribunal dealing with appeals faced a backlog of over 66000 appeals, most of which were lodged before the tribunal's establishment in 2008.

The backlog is exacerbated by the fact that the tribunal gets 2500 new appeals a month.

Madonsela said the National Treasury had approved a "a significant increase" to enable the tribunal to address the "substantial backlog". By the end of February 2011, he said the department anticipated clearing about 40000 of its appeal cases backlog.

However, the department would oppose the application for an order obliging the department to devise and implement a programme to clear the existing appeal backlog within three months. The department and Sassa had already taken all reasonable steps within their limited resources to ensure the backlog was addressed "as speedily as possible".