ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has taken on the plight of military veterans, demanding immediate action from the party's national executive committee (NEC) .
Mbalula sent a letter to provincial and national leaders last week, putting pressure on the party's members to follow up on the plight of military veterans, who are owed millions of rand in benefits and compensation by the government.
“As you are aware, the ANC ensured the successful implementation of laws in government impacting our military veterans since the advent of democracy in our country. It has come to our attention, however, that there are still several of our comrades who are unable to access these benefits, which is highly unacceptable,” Mbalula said in a letter seen by TimesLIVE Premium.
He demanded that all provincial and national leaders assist military veterans by providing their details to the ANC headquarters.
Military veterans have often complained about the dysfunction in the military veterans department, which has, over the years, failed to pay their benefits, including pension payments. Frustration boiled over in 2021 when military veterans held hostage the-then defence and military veterans minister Thandi Modise, her deputy Thabang Makwetla and minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele for almost three hours in Pretoria.
ANC Veterans' League president Snuki Zikalala warned that the incompetence of the department could lead to another hostage situation. Speaking to TimesLIVE Premium, Zikalala said the league had engaged with appointed ministers in the department dating back to Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's tenure in 2013.
He said the department was ignoring military veterans who were owed monies for their children's health care and pension.
Zikalala said the department was a “total failure”, adding that parents sleep at the department's headquarters for days on end in hopes of receiving compensation.
“These are people who fought for this country. It's so bad. Housing is also in a mess. It's so disgusting and the [people doing this] are not DA ministers, it's ANC ministers,” he said.
He said he hoped that Mbalula's intervention would mean that the department would place skilled, passionate and competent people to oversee the disbursement of their benefits.
The department of military veterans is dysfunctional. It has been dysfunctional for the past 15 years.
— Snuki Zikalala, ANC Veterans' League president
“The department of military veterans is dysfunctional. It has been dysfunctional for the past 15 years.”
A report by an advisory committee, which had recommendations to resolve the issues set up during Mapisa-Nqakula's tenure, has been gathering dust, he said.
“She said to us, 'you guys are advisers, it's either I take your advice or I don't take it'. We said 'have you read it' and she said 'no'. It's just sitting there in her office. We did studies on how ex-combatants can be looked after.”
Zikalala said Mbalula understood the issue and was passionate about fixing the problem. He said the MK Party's growth was in part due to the failure of the ANC to take care of military veterans.
“We lost most of them [veterans] to the MK Party; they thought that Zuma would do better, but the Zuma administration failed to look after them.”
In July the department said it was aware of concerns raised by a group of 300 veterans regarding delays in the disbursement of the military veterans' pension.
“We acknowledge the hardship faced by military veterans and recognise their frustration. This benefit is a vital intervention aimed at restoring dignity and improving the quality of life of those who served this country with honour.”
It said due to the budgetary constraints, it had become evident that the regulations governing the disbursement of the military veterans' pensions need to be reviewed.
“Once this process is complete, the department will resume the rollout of the military veterans' pensions, ensuring that deserving veterans receive the financial assistance they are entitled to.”
Since November 2023, more than 4,378 military veterans had successfully received their pensions, adding that it was working closely with the Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA) to process and pay new beneficiaries as they are verified, it said.
“In future, we appeal to military veterans to engage directly with the GPAA to check on the status of their applications and to raise any challenges so that they can be addressed timeously. We remain committed to upholding the dignity of all military veterans.”
MK Liberation War Veterans convener Dan Hatto said there was no political will or care to fix the problem.
“There is no door in government that we have not knocked on. We have been to the department of agriculture and even the GNU. We have been to the department[s] of human settlement, health and others to help with this situation. What we see is that these departments are working in silos,” he said.
The department had taken a decision to have a moratorium on veterans applying to educate their children without consulting them, he said, adding that children attending higher education institutions through these benefits had been left out in the cold.
“I'm hoping that the letter by the SG [Mbalula] is appealing on our behalf to fix these challenges, but we say the government and the ANC are failing. We have done everything to sit down with them and explain the plight of our members. The ANC has an obligation to see to this problem ... Military veterans in this country are nothing [to them].”
He said he feared they were punished because the MK Liberation War Veterans had refused to involve themselves in ANC factions. He added that they were trying to engage senior military veterans who had defected to the MK Party to rejoin the ANC.
“Our military veterans resonated with what Zuma came up with. Whether it is true or not, that is a story for another day. People that you grew up with within the organisation, and you know their political background, some of them are communist, teaching politics, what made them believe they would be happy in the MK Party? You conclude that they were despondent and losing hope.”
However, he said there was hope that the minister of defence and military veterans Angie Motshekga was moving to correct the situation. He said her acknowledgment that there is a problem was the first step in correcting the challenges.
“When you get a person who is humble enough to ask for our opinions without any favours, you give them the benefit of the doubt.”
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