The lack of positive response from the Cabinet minister entrusted with the military veterans’ portfolio prompted a Member of Parliament (MP) to seek answers from South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who heads the Presidential Task Team on Military Veterans (PTTMV).
While not the response Maliyakhe Shelembe, Democratic Alliance (DA) point man in the National Assembly (NA) on military veterans, probably hoped for, he was informed of a development regarding the transport subsidy benefit.
Shelembe has long maintained the transport subsidy – while workable with public transport in urban areas – doesn’t make the grade in rural areas. “Say nothing” answers from Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga spurred him to what, in military parlance, is termed “higher authority”.
His question to Mashatile references the 11 “core benefits” old soldiers are entitled to with a public transport subsidy one. It reads, in part: “the DMV (Department of Military Veterans) has reported to the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) that it is not feasible to implement the transport subsidy benefit under the current transport system”. What action is Mashatile, as President Cyril Ramaphosa’s choice to head the PTTMV, going to take to ensure the transport benefit is implemented?
The Mashatile reply has it: “At the end of the sixth administration, the former Minister of Defence and Military Veterans [Thandi Modise] approved the reconfiguration of the Socio-economic Support Workstream. The Social Support Workstream is now divided into seven sub-committees and transport is one of these sub-committees”.
“Through the work of the Social Support Workstream, the PTTMV is committed to ensure that benefits to qualifying military veterans are delivered. In this regard, the Social Support Workstream, utilising the relevant sub-committee, will engage the National Treasury (NT) and the Department of Transport (DoT) to look at the modalities of implementing transport subsidy benefits under the current transport system.”
No timelines are given in the Deputy President’s reply.
