Cape Town – Deputy President David Mabuza says the National Treasury and the minister of Defence are in talks about the cost of giving pensions and other benefits to military veterans.
Mabuza, who was answering questions in the National Assembly on Thursday, said they were addressing the plight of military veterans across the country.
He has said they have consulted with various structures over the past two years and are in the process of verifying the database of military veterans.
Mabuza was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to chair the inter-ministerial committee on military veterans following a protest at the Union Buildings.
The military veterans also held minister of Defence Thandi Modise and minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele at St George’s Hotel in Pretoria late last year. deputy minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thabang Makwetla was also present in the hostage drama. Several military veterans were arrested and appeared in court.
“In addition, discussions between the Department of Military Veterans and the National Treasury about the provisioning of military pension, as provided for by current legislation, are at an advanced stage.
“The draft actuarial report, which is required to support the proposed changes to the pension policy, will soon be presented to the executive authorities for consideration,” Mabuza said.
He also told the National Assembly Eskom was in the process of re-purposing some of its power plants.
This is in a bid to address energy security challenges in the country. He said although the country faced loadshedding, re-purposing old power plants would mitigate power shortages.
Mabuza also said they wanted to crack down on corruption in municipalities.
The reports of the Auditor-General have pointed to the scale of corruption in local government and government will have to be firm in dealing with corruption.
However, Mabuza has warned that corruption is not only limited to the public sector saying the private sector also had corruption.
“Where there is a corrupt public servant, there is a ’corruptee’ in the private sector,” Mabuza said.
The deputy president said that while the government would not force people to get vaccinated, it was encouraging more people to take the jab.
He said the country was likely to face the fifth wave during the onset of winter and it would be important for people to be vaccinated.
More than 48.6 percent of the adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Political Bureau
