Signals Association

Military Veterans’ Act & it’s Provisions

A Military Veterans Act (Act, 18 of 2011) (click here to view) was Promulgated in 2011 The Act provides principles recognised by the State as governing the affairs of military veterans and for policy objectives. In this regard:

• the President will be the Patron-in-Chief of all military veterans;
• provision is made for benefits relating to military veterans;
• an Advisory Council on Military Veterans and the Military Veterans Appeal Board was established; and
• Certain functions of the Department of Military Veterans are provided for.

The Military Veterans Act further provides for:

• Fundamental principles recognised by State, and policy objectives;
• Certain powers and duties of the Department responsible for military veterans;
• The Director General’s function in respect of South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA).
• The establishment of an Advisory Council on Military Veterans. The Composition and Powers and Duties of such Council; the Nomination Procedure for and the Appointment of members of the Advisory Council, the Remuneration, Allowances, Term of Office, Removal, Resignation of members and Meetings of the Advisory Council;
• The establishment of a Military Veterans Appeal Board. The Powers and Duties of such Appeal Board, the Composition and appointment of members of the Appeal Board, their Disqualification from membership, Remuneration, removal of office and resignation of members of the appeal Board and the making of Regulations relating thereto.

The function of the Director General of the Department of Military Veterans is to, in conjunction with SANMVA and other military veteran organisations, create mechanisms to ensure that SANMVA serves as an umbrella organisation representing military veterans’ associations. It should do so in a fair manner, conducting its business in a fair, transparent and accountable manner, hold free, fair and regular elections and at least once a year report to the Minister on its activities. A military veteran’s organisation is not obliged to join SANMVA.

In terms of Section 1 of the Military Veterans Act (Act 18 of 2011), a “Military Veteran” is defined as “Any South African citizen who-

• Rendered military service to any of the military organisations, statutory and non-statutory, which were involved on all sides of South Africa’s Liberation War from 1960 to 1994;
• Served in the Union Defence Force before 1961; or
• Became a member of the new South African National Defence Force after 1994.

and has completed his or her military training and no longer performs military service, and has not been dishonourably discharged from that military organisation or force”.

South African National Military Veteran Association (SANMVA)

SANMVA was first formed and constituted at a conference at the Booysens Hotel in Johannesburg on 27 October 2008 in terms of the then Military Veterans’ Bill, but CMVO member organisations knew nothing about the new movement at the time.

Through a lot of interaction, deliberation and negotiation between the CMVO and SANMVA, the CMVO was subsequently included as a member organisation of SANMVA in the latter’s Constitution and now, together with AZANLAMVA, APLAMVA, BDFMVA, CDFMVA, MKMVA, TDFMVA AND VDFMVA, forms the 8 “founder members” of SANMVA.

SANMVA is the only umbrella veterans’ organisation that is recognised in the Military Veterans Act. [The CMVO used to be the only umbrella veterans’ organisation covering the old established traditional military veterans’ associations, including the Signals Association (Western Cape)].

The Mission of SANMVA is “to be a national organisation which unites military veterans’ organisations; whose members have experienced the sufferings of conflict and war, and whose forces fought side by side or faced each other in combat, and want to contribute to the maintenance of a democratic and united South Africa established in terms of and based on the principles of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996”.

Benefits

Military Veterans qualify for the following benefits, provided they pass a “means test”, details of which were Promulgated in Regulations made by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans under Section 24 of the Military Veterans Act, 2011 (Act No 18 of 2011) as published under Government Notice No R.122 in Government Gazette No 37355 of 19 February 2014 (www.dmv.gov.za/benefits.htm):

• Compensation to military veterans who sustained disabling injuries or severe psychological and neuro-psychiatric trauma or who suffer from a terminal disease resulting from their participation in military activities;
• Dedicated counselling and treatment to military veterans who suffer from serious mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder or related conditions;
• Honouring and memorialising fallen military veterans;
• Education, training and skills development;
• Facilitation of employment placements;
• Facilitation of or advice on business opportunities;
• Subsidisation or provisioning of public transport;
• Pension;
• Access to health care;
• Housing; and
• Burial support

The above benefits are in various stages of delivery and are dependent on the necessary budgets and structures of a number of State Ministries and the Department of Military Veterans’ Affairs.

The various benefits contained in the above Regulations, briefly, are as follows (Sections of the Act in brackets). For full details rather refer to the actual Regulations in Government Notice No R.122 in Government Gazette No 37355 of 19 February 2014:

• Compensation for injury, trauma and disease (Sections 3 – 7)
• Facilitation of Employment Placement (Sections 8 & 9)
• Facilitation of Business Opportunities (Sections 10 & 11)
• Subsidised Public Transport (Section 12)
• Access to Health Care (Section 13)
• Housing (Sections 14 & 15)
• Burial Support (Sections 16 – 18)

In summary, the Criteria prescribed in the Regulations for applying for benefits are as follows. The criteria differs for each of the benefits, but the main criteria (for the interest of our members) are more or less the same over all of the benefits.  For full details rather refer to the actual Regulations in Government Notice No R.122 in Government Gazette No 37355 of 19 February 2014.

• Be unemployed and receive a pension from the State; or
• Is employed and has an annual income of less than R125,000 (R1,041.66 pm)
• In the case of health care, is employed but does not qualify for a medical aid subsidy from his employer; or the veteran’s medical aid cover is not sufficient owing to the status of his health – See Regulation 13)
• In the case of Housing, the veteran must also not own a house, has not previously received a house or other housing benefit from the State, etc – See Regulation 14)
• For all benefits listed above, refer to each of the Regulations in the Government Gazette (www.dmv.gov.za/benefits.htm).       

A person does not need to be a member of a military veteran association / organization  to qualify or apply for benefits under the Military Veterans’ Act.

The procedure to apply for military veterans benefits is set out in Clause 19(1) of

Military Veterans Benefits Regulations : 2014, published under Government Notice R122 in Government Gazette 37355 dated 19 February 2014, which states:

“A military veteran or his or her representative may, subject to regulation 7(2), apply for a military veterans benefit by completing the appropriate application form at an office of the Department, or at any other place designated by the Department, in the presence of an official designated by the Department.”

However, if any of our members who may qualify for benefits as described herein, he/she can contact our association for assistance by emailing