A joint presentation by the Department of Defence and Military Veterans (DMV) and the Department of Human Settlements today highlighted not only the criteria for housing qualifications and the current results on pre-screenings, but also the challenges experienced by these departments in the provision of housing to military veterans.

The presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans was led by the Acting Director-General of the Departments of Military Veterans, Mr Max Ozinsky. He made reference to the Military Veterans Benefit Regulations 14 (1) which provides that veterans qualify for housing if they are registered on the DMV database as military veterans; they are unemployed or receive a pension; they are employed with an income less than R125 000 a year; they do not own a house and they have not received a housing subsidy from the state.

DMV started a process to establish a Housing Needs Database (HND) in October 2015 and since then, 21 411 potential housing beneficiaries have been identified. These considerations included 16 800 Non-Statutory Force (NSF) veterans and 4 611 former statutory force members. These potential beneficiaries were, with the assistance of the National Department of Human Settlements (NDHS) pre-screened to determine their eligibility based on the requirements of the MVB Regulations 14 (1).

The pre-screening resulted in 16 421 disqualifications based on the following: 5 722 were deceased, 844 had invalid IDs, 6 336 had tittle deeds, 2 931 received RDP housing subsidies and 538 earned above the R125 000 a year threshold. A total of 4 990 veterans pre-qualified for housing, with the Gauteng province having the largest number of beneficiaries (1 020), followed by the Eastern Cape (631) and KwaZulu-Natal (411).

The Committee heard that in aspiring to deliver housing to military veterans across South Africa, the Departments of Military Veterans and Human Settlements are facing a number of challenges. These challenges relate to disputes by associations such as the South African National Military Veterans Associations (SANMVA), which refuses to sign off on beneficiary lists. The Committee heard that beneficiaries do not reside close to the planned housing projects and very often refuse to move from the areas where they currently reside to the new developments, illegal occupation of houses built for veterans and in a number of cases, the details of military veterans were incomplete or veterans were untraceable. These were but some of the challenges raised by the departments.

To address some of these challenges, the departments have identified a number of interventions. These include (but are not limited to) mapping beneficiaries and locating them near active housing projects, media campaigns aimed at military veterans who have incomplete records or are untraceable and a national circular to guide provinces in the application of Regulation 14, which relates to the management of rejection cases.

While the Committee encouraged the departments to continue engaging SANMVA on finding solutions to the challenges relating to beneficiary lists, it noted the need for an oversight visit to determine the magnitude and get a first-hand experience of the challenges faced by the departments. The Committee welcomed the collaboration between the Departments of Military Veterans and Human Settlements and said that Provincial MEC’s need also be called upon to address some of the challenges highlighted.

By Felicia Lombard 

15 November 2017