Media statement by the Director-General of the Department

10 March 2013

Ladies and gentlemen of the media

We are here today to brief you about a very important programme that the Department of Military Veterans is embarking upon in order to realise its mandate of changing the lives of our military veterans for the better.

As from 12 March 2013 we will be issuing healthcare cards to military veterans so that they can indeed have easy and free access to health in military hospitals in the country. The healthcare cards are to be issued to those military veterans that have updated their files with the Department of Military Veterans (DMV).

The issuing of these healthcare cards will be done in phases starting with Gauteng and the Eastern Cape between the 12 and 26 March 2012. (see schedule below). These will be followed by , Limpopo, Western Cape, North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape. Details of the dates and places of issuance will be provided soon.

The schedule for issuing these cards will be as follows:

Tuesday, 12 March 2013 and Wednesday, 13 March 2013 at Lenasia, Gauteng (which will cater for Soweto, Johannesburg South, Vaal and the West Rand)

Thursday, 14 March 2013 and Friday, 15 March 2013 sickbay Gauteng in Gezina, Pretoria. (which will cater for Pretoria and neighbouring North West areas such as Brits)

Tuesday, 19 March 2013 and Wednesday sickbay Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape

Friday, 22 March 2013 sickbay East London, Eastern Cape (The date for Port Elizabeth will be announced later)

Tuesday, 26 March 2013 sickbay Heidelberg, Gauteng

To date, out of the 56 505 military veterans captured in the database of the DMV, 13 768 have updated their files and priority attention in the issuing of these healthcare cards will be given to them, especially those from the non-statutory forces, who for many decades did not enjoy such benefits.

The issuing of the healthcare cards is a significant step in the direction of ensuring that we roll out the social benefits stipulated in the Military Veterans Act (Act No 18 of 2011). The Act enjoins us to ensure that the military veterans, especially those from the NSF, are treated with dignity, honoured, memorialised and empowered in honour of the many sacrifices they made in bringing about freedom and democracy in this country as well as enhancing social cohesion and nation building.

We therefore call upon all the military veterans who have updated their files to forth and receive their cards in the respective places as scheduled. We also call upon the South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA) and its affiliate associations, especially Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans, MKMVA, the Azanian People Liberation Army Military Veterans (APLAMVA) who had never had such benefits for years, to work closely with the DMV to ensure that this critically needed service is provided to the veterans sooner rather than later. We also call upon those military veterans who have not yet updated their files to do so as soon as possible so that they can have access to these services.

All those who come for their healthcare cards should bring their green barcoded identificaty documents (IDs).

For more information the military veterans, their dependents as well as associations can contact the DMV at 012 671 1890 and 076 402 9070 or 078 099 2564.

The issuing of these healthcare cards constitutes one of the core service delivery functions of the DMV as stipulated in Section 5 of the Military Veterans Act (Act No 18 of 2011). Section 5 of the Act stipulates the provision of access to healthcare.

Ladies and gentlemen, within the last three years since the DMV was established by Presidential Proclamation in December 2009, we have made significant progress. Some of the milestones we have achieved include the following:

Creating the necessary enabling legislative and policy environment for service by putting place the Military veterans Act 18 of 2011. We will be finalising the Regulations of the Act soon in order to ensure that we move speedily with implementation of the provisions of the Act including the roll out of the benefits.

We are now working with Statistics South Africa to speed up the cleaning up of the database of the Military Veterans with the intention of making sure that no military veteran and his or her dependent is left out when we roll out the benefits.
This clean- up of the database will also go a long way in ensuring that we prevent possible fraud and corruption. Alongside, on 1 March 2013 we started with the verification process. A verification panel led by Major General (retired) EM Mashoala has been established. That verification process is already under way in Johannesburg, verifying 679 AZANLAMVA and APLAMVA members submitted by their Associations and is awaiting the list from the MKMVA.

We are also forging ahead in honouring and memorialising the military veterans. As you may all be aware, that on 2 August, 27 October and 6 December 2012, President Jacob Zuma conferred medals such as Platinum, Gold, Silver as well as Commemorative to no less than 500 military veterans to the founding members of MK, viz. the Luthuli Detachment as part of honouring their 50th anniversary. The President and indeed the Minister and the deputy Minister of Defence Honourable Nosiviwe Mapisa -Nqakula and Thabang Makwetla respectively committed during those parades to ensuring that this year we also honour the remaining detachment of Umkhonto we Sizwe as well APLAMVA members. This indeed is going to one of our priorities this year (2013) and preparations are already underway in that direction.

We have also made significant strides in that the DMV has to date facilitated access to free health services to no less than 4 000 military veterans and we aim to increase even more this year. This is very significant given the fact that the military veterans are often faced with myriad of illnesses borne of the conditions under which they had to operate over many years including been in exile, military skirmishes, imprisonment detention as well as torture for many a year.

We have also been able to assist scores of families with burial of military veterans, particularly those living in conditions of abject poverty, unemployment and destitution.

We have also signed the memorandum of understanding with the Department of Water Affairs which is going to provide military veterans with approximately 750 job opportunities.

We have also provided 100 bursaries to military veterans and their dependents and the number this year will increase.

Ladies and gentlemen, whist we have made some progress since the establishment of the DMV over the last three years, we are alive to the fact that there is a lot that still needs to be done to make sure that we truly honour, restore dignity, empower and build a better life for the military veterans, in honour of their immense contributions to bringing about the freedom and democracy that we now all enjoy today as well their invaluable contributions to reconciliation, social cohesion and nation building.

We have no doubt that working together with all sectors of society, the Military Veterans Associations, business, labour, civil society, faith based organisations, non-governmental organisations, academia, the media, and perhaps the military veterans themselves, we can do more in building a dignified and better life for our veterans.

Enquiries:
Mbulelo Musi
Cell: 082 338 3890