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The Department of Military Veterans led by the new Acting Director General, Mr Max Ozinsky, together with the National Department of Human Settlement and several provinces, agreed with the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, to urgently accelerate the delivery of houses to military veterans and overcome challenges related to that.

The objective is to deliver 1000 houses across the nine provinces, in line with the annual performance plans of the Department of Military Veterans(DMV). To that extent, R138 million has been set aside by the DMV to top up the building and provision of decent houses, in line with the specifications agreed between the Department of Military Veterans and Human Settlement.

The specification stipulates that a minimum of 50 square meters with a carport should be built for military veterans.

The portfolio committee together with the two departments, noted that, there have been challenges affecting the delivery of houses for military veterans such as inadequate policies, the lack of a reliable and creditable database for military veterans, the lack of efficient governance mechanisms, as well as the quick provision of sites for the building of houses for military veterans in municipalities.

The meeting agreed on the need to fast-track the development of proper policies, the strengthening of interdepartmental and intergovernmental governance mechanisms nationally, provincially and locally. Secondly there has to be a strong monitoring and evaluation tool and oversight of projects where military veterans houses are to be built.

The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans will embark on a series of roadshows jointly with the Department of Military Veterans and the Department of Human Settlement to assess the state of projects of building houses for military veterans as a matter of urgency.

The provinces that where represented in the meeting, are KwaZulu Natal, North-West, Eastern Cape and the Free State

Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Military Veterans