Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Military vets in struggle for benefits
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.”
RICHARD ARMOUR
American poet
A TWO-YEAR battle for his military pension has yielded no results for Sean Baker, years after he served his country for more than a decade.
South African National Defence Force veteran Baker said he had appendix problems while he was still in the army and it worsened when he went for operations.
“I went for two operations and they both didn’t go well. The second one made it worse because I got an infection after going through with it,” he said.
Baker said he wanted to get a military medical benefit first and the others will follow, but it had been difficult for him.
He said at present he couldn’t apply for any benefit because when he went to the department’s provincial office he was told he first needed to be registered in the database. “I have been trying to get on the database for two years now and every time there is something else they require,” he said.
Baker said he did not know what else to do because he felt he was being denied what was entitled to him.
He alleged the department’s official who he had been dealing with had been rude to him for no apparent reason.
The benefits of being a South African military veteran are housing; free access to military health services; free or subsidised access to public transport; skills acquisition and education support; job placement; burial support; entrepreneurial support services counselling and military pension.
National spokesperson for the department Phumeza Dzuguda said Baker was not yet on the military veterans’ database.
“Mr Baker has contacted the DMV to register and was advised by a colleague on the process to follow. He is supposed to request his service certificate from the South African National Defence Force which has a different process from us.”
Dzuguda said a colleague had been in contact regarding the process of Baker’s application but, due to some of the missing mandatory documents, it could not be finalised.
She said the department had not yet started to pay out pensions to military veterans. Once the pension was available, the process of applications, including the criteria would be communicated to the military veterans.
“For any military veteran to receive the 11 benefits that are stipulated in the Military Veterans Act 18 of 2011, he or she has to be registered in the national military veterans’ database,” she added.
Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association member Alfred Willie said there were many veterans who never received benefits.
He said most of them did not know where to go to apply to obtain the benefits. “It is very bad that the very same people we fought for are the same ones denying us our special pension by adding technicalities in the processes.”