Military veterans losing out on housing

Illegitimate military veterans were forcefully benefiting

PARLIAMENT heard yesterday that the housing beneficiary database of the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) needs cleaning up.

In a joint briefing by the departments of Human Settlements and Military Veterans to Parliament’s portfolio committee on human settlements, they questioned the qualifying criteria and guidelines for the provision of housing to military veterans.

“It is not uncommon these days to find a 23-year-old being a beneficiary. That tells us a story; they are younger than democracy,” said the Department of Military Veterans spokesperson, Mbulelo Musi.

He said the issue was serious, and young people claiming to be veterans indicated that the department’s database was vulnerable to “contamination and corruption and other things”.

“We would like to implore that Members of Parliament, as they do constituency work, to assist us making sure that we do not corrupt a database because it distorts military veterans that are bona fide, to get what they ought to get, especially those who brought us democracy,” said Musi.

The DMV was reviewing the legislation in relation to allocating houses to military veterans because “we saw some serious gaps that would impact (negatively) on housing provisions for military veterans”.

“We are hopeful in the next sitting of Parliament that legislation would come.

“The current legislation prescribes a provision for (only) a military veteran.

“The normal question you find from military veterans which the legislation must respond to is: What happens when a military veteran dies and the wife did not have access to a house, or an orphan is left destitute?”

The IFP’s Khethamabala Sithole said illegitimate military veterans, very young, were forcefully benefiting from housing developments in Gauteng.

Human Settlements director-general Mbulelo Tshangana said 1 421 houses would be allocated to military veterans this financial year.