We bade farewell to Edwin Hlape Melato last Sunday. After a two-hour service in a tent pitched outside his shack at Elias Motsoaledi squatter camp in Soweto, he was taken to Avalon cemetery, amid exuberant singing and dancing interspersed with bursts of automatic gunfire. It was a send-off fit for a hero, but it was the sort of attention that unfortunately eluded him in life.Melato - Bra Fish to his friends and Dickson More to his comrades - was an Umkhonto weSizwe veteran who joined the ANC in 1956 and left South Africa in 1964 for military training. He spent most of the time as an MK soldier in Tanzania.But it was at home that he was to wage a long, ultimately fruitless battle. For more than a decade he begged and cajoled officialdom for an RDP house - without success. As a result, he and his wife, Linnar, a Tanzanian, lived in the shack from 1994 until his death.Melato, who suffered from myriad diseases, died after an unsuccessful heart operation. But his comrades believe that the squalid conditions in the squatter camp may have contributed to his death.story_article_left1His case has therefore become a cause célèbre among MK veterans; an illlustration of the dire state in which most of them find themselves, and an indictment of the ANC's indifference to their plight.Melato, who had been on the waiting list since 1994, could only watch in despair as new houses were built on open veld not far from his shack. He worried about what would happen to his wife once he had gone, especially given the spate of xenophobic attacks in the townships.After his plight was highlighted in this column a few months ago, many ANC and government officials visited him and promised to attend to his case, but not before they had scolded him for embarrassing them in the media.A senior official in the Department of Military Veterans even left her number for him to call, should the promised house not materialise. But his calls went unanswered."We knocked at every official door without success," said Omry Makgoale, another MK veteran."All we got was a litany of excuses and false promises. Living under an ANC government [was] a nightmare for him. He died a broken man, homeless and destitute."If officials didn't seem to care during Melato's lifetime, they did show up for his funeral on Sunday.But they seemed only interested in rallying the troops for next year's municipal elections. The ANC is concerned about the outcome of the elections. Townships and squatter camps are vital to it retaining control of metros such as Johannesburg.Jackie Sedibe, a retired major-general and a former colleague of Melato's, said black people should be careful not to be misled by the DA."Where was Helen Zille when we were in the struggle, in the trenches?" she asked.story_article_right2The theme was taken up by Kebby Maphatsoe, deputy minister of defence and military veterans and chairman of the MK Military Veterans' Association . Maphatsoe, who gained notoriety last year by accusing Thuli Madonsela of being a CIA spy, said little about Melato. He used the service to promote the ANC, warning people the DA would target informal settlements in the elections. Mmusi Maimane, he said, was just another "rent-a-black".Those with complaints about their pensions, he said, should see him after the funeral. But he was nowhere to be seen afterwards.Former MK combatants feel betrayed by the ANC leadership. Most of them voted for Jacob Zuma against Thabo Mbeki at Polokwane in 2007. Zuma, they thought, would be sympathetic to their plight because he was with them "in the trenches". But he's done no better. Power corrupts.Zuma has co-opted Maphatsoe, a divisive figure within MK, into his administration, purportedly to look after the interests of ex-combatants, many of whom are sick and destitute.It's not as if resources to help them are not available. A trust for their benefit holding millions has been corralled by Maphatsoe and his friends.A scheme for the education of veterans' children, they say, has also proved inaccessible."It's all pie in the sky," said one.A challenge for opposition parties, though, is that even with such widespread disaffection, nobody is talking about leaving the ANC, at least not publicly. The ANC is not just another party for them. It's a home. In exile it clothed, fed and educated them and their children. It's almost as if it's been ingrained, or chiselled, into their character to the point where it has become a part of their being. As one man put it: "It's [in] my blood."They believe all that is required is the eviction of a leadership that has betrayed them.But a priority now is to get an RDP house - a home - for Linnar, Melato's widow.That may not make up for all the hurts he endured. But his comrades hope his soul may rest a little easier...