R41.5m left unspent as ex-soldiers battle to make ends meet

THE Department of Military Veterans has underspent its budget by R41.5 million.

This massive underexpenditure flies, however, in the face of calls by the ANC, in its discussion documents for the National General Council next month, for more attention to be paid to the former soldiers in the non-statutory forces.

The underexpenditure is contained in the report of the auditor-general in the department’s annual report.

The document, titled Social Transformation, wants the government to ramp up services to former MK soldiers and other non-statutory forces.

“The social and economic exclusion of military veterans, in particular non-statutory forces, has not received priority attention from government departments,” the document stated.

“While the Department of Military Veterans has been established, there is a need to escalate the provision of a comprehensive basket of services (social and economic) by all state departments and parastatals.

“Hence, the department must be strengthened to set up mechanisms to monitor the implementation and enforce compliance by all structures in line with the Military Veterans Act.”

Outlining its achievements for the previous financial year, however, the department said a lot of progress had been made to address the plight of former soldiers.

It said in the report that it had linked up with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to manage its social relief programme for the former soldiers.

The department said more than 690 military veterans had accessed its social relief of distress programme through Sassa.

In addition, 6 795 former soldiers have been granted access to healthcare services. The department is also providing bursaries to military veterans and their dependants.

It rescued nine houses from the former soldiers when they were about to be repossessed by banks.

This is line with their regulations, the department said.

It added that almost R32m was sent to the Department of Human Settlements to build houses for about 1 987 former soldiers.

About 2 500 veterans have been received skills training and development on various programmes.

The report also lists 1 700 veterans as having benefited from job opportunities in the year under review.

At its Polokwane conference in 2007, the ANC resolved to set up the department to look after the interests of former soldier organisations, acknowledging that some of the former soldiers were battling to survive.