The South African Coloured Corps (SACC) Forum has marched on parliament, on Wednesday, demanding that military veterans of the former Cape Corps be awarded their legal benefits.
Established in June last year, the Forum says engagements with the Department of Military Veterans have been frustrating.
The SACC represents members from across the country.
SACC’s Secretary General, Geralda Abrahams says, “We’ve been struggling with DMV for a long time to get these guys to come onto the database. There’s forever a red door or red tape or red wall that we can’t get our veterans to get them on the database, for them to get these benefits that are entitled to them.”
The Forum represents former soldiers of the South African Cape Corps who participated, among others, in World War 2.
The unit was integrated into the SANDF in 1994 and its name changed to 9 SAI.
SACC Administrator, Avril Hendricks says, “The sad thing about this is, all of us that’s standing here today, we’ve got our force numbers. So it’s supposed to be not a very difficult thing. But a lot of us, when we do the application, they cannot find our service records. They cannot find this, they cannot find that or there’s a problem with that or you must go to home affairs on your own. So there’s a constant struggle to engage with the DMV.”
Legal advice has been obtained. There is, however, hope that the matter could be resolved outside court.
Legal advisor, Tim Dunn says, “They have a right in terms of the Military Veterans’ Act of 2011 to benefits. The benefits as defined in the Act, as well as certain benefits applied to the dependents of veterans. And that Act also gives in fact constitutional obligations that the government has to simply treat veterans equally, to giving veterans benefits and it’s also notable that other veteran formations have been experiencing the same issues.”
If needs be, the Forum says it will follow a legal route.
Forum marches to Parliament demanding to be awarded their legal benefits:
