Thousands of military veterans will soon receive their long awaited government military pension.
This is according to deputy minister of defence and military veterans Thabang Makwetla.
“The quantum will be announced by the relevant office when the pension commences in a matter of weeks because the engagement to prepare administratively for the rollout of this pension has been going on alongside the finalisation of the policy around the pension,” said Makwetla.
Speaking to military veterans in Mahikeng, North West two weeks ago, deputy president David Mabuza, who heads the presidential task team on military veterans, announced government had overcome the hurdle of the pension pay-outs.
This week TimesLIVE sat down with Makwetla in Sandton to learn how the pension will be rolled out and who will qualify.
The interview happened on the same day tensions flared and metro police were called to a Durban hotel when a group of military vets refused to leave.
According to a TimesLIVE report, the vets, flood victims who had been booked into the Royal Hotel on Anton Lembede Street (formerly Smith Street), had been attending a conference for counselling. They understood they were scheduled to stay at the hotel for several days. However, their stay was cut short on Wednesday when hotel staff locked them out of their rooms, raising an issue about payment for the extended stay.
In October 2021, some military veterans — who previously complained to government about being ignored when it comes to housing, social relief, educational assistance, employment and access to land — held ministers including Thandi Modise, Mondli Gundubele and Makwetla, against their will at the St George’s Hotel, forcing police to intervene. The group appeared in the Pretoria magistrate’s court where the case was reportedly withdrawn.
Makewtla said: “The military veteran pension is part of the benefits legislated according to the Military Veteran’s Act 18 of 2011. The reason why it hasn’t been implemented over the past 10 years is because the budget of the department of military veterans was never of the size that accommodates a pension of that nature.”
Makwetla said at this stage he “was not allowed” to divulge how much the vets will receive monthly.
He said government has been able to pay the monthly military pension because of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s intervention.
“If it wasn’t for the president’s intervention by establishing the Presidential Task Team (PTT), I do not think the department of military veterans would have been able to implement this obligation and benefit.”
He said the PTT’s intervention made it relatively easy for other stakeholders around the decision, particularly National Treasury, to be sympathetic to the plea made by the veterans.
“The people who are going to be benefiting from this pension are exclusively military veterans who were in the liberation armies, meaning the non-statutory forces military veterans.
“This is because military veterans who come from the former statutory forces as government civil servants would have had a pension arranged for them during their time of service, barring a few or special cases, specifically the SA Cape Corps, which is the coloured community soldiers who were part of the Southern Africa Defence and Aid Fund who were demobilised on the eve of the integration (transition) period.
“Those would be statutory forces former members who may have left with what is not an adequate pension, but there would have some severance. This pension is for those who were not gainfully employed because they were not employees of the state and in underground movements in the military wings of those underground movements.”
The pension, he said, covers the ANC’s uMkhonto we Sizwe, Azanian People's Liberation Army and Azapo’s Azanian National Liberation Army.
Makwetla clarified the pension is not for all those who were in the liberation armies.
“There are others whose age cohort was below the entry point of the recipients of the special pension who were not covered and who are not receiving the special pension. Primarily those are military veterans who are more destitute and for whose welfare government feels obligated to intervene by providing them with a pension because they are not getting anything.”
There is, however, a proviso which says in the event t a recipient of a special political pension receives a less amount than the military pension, that person can apply for the difference.
Initially, there were about 9,000 people who qualified but the number dropped after fine-tuning the policy.
“I am not in a position to give you the exact figures because that number-crunching is being finalised. At the point of implementing the pension we will communicate exactly how big a community this pension is going to take care of.”
Initially, based on the original projections of about 9,000 beneficiaries which has subsequently been revised, an estimated R66m was going to be needed for the financial year that ended in March, he said.
Makwetla said for the ongoing verification process of the bona fide military veterans, the department of social development would assist in ensuring the money goes to the right people.
Turning to the hostage situation which the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decided not to prosecute, Makwetla said: “I have all faith and confidence the NPA executed their responsibility and I will not take it further than that.
“What is unfortunate about that hostage drama at St George’s is that when we were in the process of addressing the challenges around military veterans, we went into a negative spin in our relationship as a result of what this group of military veterans did, which was unfortunate.
“Once there is animosity between ourselves and the military veterans community, like the way it happened in St George’s, it takes us back and diverts us.
“We are supposed to be in court with them and what if the court was able to prove there was an infringement of t laws? It would mean they must be sanctioned.
“I never expected that development to be part of the things these military veterans could be contemplating because it was, in my view, a very irresponsible way of dealing with a very urgent matter.”
Makwetla said there is no doubt the concerns raised by the veterans are legitimate.
“But for me, people who are up to mischief, must live with the consequences.”
TimesLIVE
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