Do I have any rights to fight for my grandmother's house, which her son, your uncle, has since sold?

The long answer

I am not quite sure what you mean by your name being on the title deed: if you mean that the house was put into your name at the Deeds office through a conveyancing lawyer, when your grandmother was still alive, then the house is legally yours, as the title deed is the only legal proof of ownership. But if you were one of the dependents named in her RDP application, this would not give you the right to inherit the house.

This is how it works:
When someone applies for an RDP house, they must either be married or living with a partner, or single but have dependents. The names of these dependents are listed by the municipality in the application. There is a lot of confusion about who the beneficiary of the house is, because the dependents listed in the original application are not actually beneficiaries as such. The owner is the beneficiary of the RDP house. But the dependents listed in the application generally do stand to inherit the house when the owner dies, because they are often his or her blood relatives, and the government’s policy is that RDP houses should stay in the family.

If the owner makes a will nominating someone as their heir, that person will become the legal owner of the house. But if the owner does not make a will, they are said to have died intestate, and the Intestate Succession Act of 1987 will apply in this way: if there is a surviving spouse and children, the property will be left to him/her and their children. If there is no surviving spouse, the children will inherit, followed by more distant relatives. If your grandmother had no surviving spouse, and as she died without a will, her estate would be divided by the number of her surviving children and her deceased children who left issue. So, if you are the daughter of a deceased child of your grandmother – in other words, if you are the daughter of a son or daughter of your grandmother, who died before her – you would be entitled to a child’s share, along with your uncle. If you are the daughter of a still-living son or daughter, that son or daughter would inherit a child’s share, along with your uncle and any other siblings.

You could contact the Housing Enquiries of the Department of Human Settlements at the toll-free Customer service hotline: 0800 146 873 / 012 421 1915, and ask them to help you.

You could also approach the Black Sash, which is an organisation that gives free paralegal advice and ask them to advise you on your rights.
These are their contact details:

Black Sash email: help@blacksash.org.za. Helpline: 072 66 33 73, 072 633 3739 or 063 610 1865.

Wishing you the best,
Athalie