Johannesburg - Deputy President David Mabuza, in his capacity as chairperson of the Presidential Task Team on Military Veterans, was in KwaZulu-Natal to engage with military veterans’ associations.
Mabuza said that it was the government's responsibility to ensure that military veterans had access to adequate health facilities, a decent pension, housing, and equitable access to education for themselves and their dependants.
"This meeting was supposed to have happened a while back, around July to be exact, but kept being postponed because, as we were told, the Department of Military Veterans had a dispute with a company that it had contracted to handle its transport needs, and as a result, it couldn’t transport to this occasion its own staff as well as military veterans themselves," said Mabuza.
This led him to highlight that it was fundamental for the Department of Military Veterans to be staffed with personnel who were 100% committed to the service of military veterans. There could not be any room in this department for employees who had no empathy for the plight of military veterans.
Mabuza added that after analysing the myriad challenges faced by military veterans, and in view of the observed inability of the Department of Military Veterans to adequately dispense services to military veterans, the Presidential Task Team resolved to establish seven Workstreams, through which it aimed to streamline specific service delivery packages to military veterans.
These include the Legislative Review Workstream, which in the main, is meant to assist with the review of the current Military Veterans Act and to bring about an act that is more responsive and supportive of current challenges; and the Socio-Economic Support Workstream, which is meant to help military veterans access both social and economic support packages, among others.
The deputy president emphasised the important role that needs to be played by military veterans’ associations in ensuring that military veterans receive the care and benefits to which they are entitled.
"In this regard, we must register our concerns about the mandate of the South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA), which has for a while now expired. It is important for the Ministry of Defense and Military Veterans to urgently work towards getting SANMVA to conference, where its mandate can be renewed," he said.
Mabuza also confirmed that the new military veterans' pension that had been approved by the Presidential Task Team would be dispensed as soon as the Ministry of Defense and Military Veterans finalised the prerequisite regulations.
"We are aware of the gap that this pension is urgently required to plug, but we call on our military veterans to bear with the ministry, which is currently occupied with the task," he said.
The Star