Pretoria – The long-awaited process to establish an umbrella body representing military veterans across the country will begin this weekend, the defence department announced on Friday.

Military veterans department director general Tsepe Motumi said in Pretoria a conference would bring together all associations from 28 September to 1 October.

“Six hundred military veterans from across the spectrum of the military veterans’ community, as well as guests such as the military attaches, and members of the defence industry, are expected to attend this significant conference,” he told reporters.

The Military Veterans Act – passed in 2011 – instructs the department to establish a body for all military veterans nationally.

Motumi said consultations with the various bodies representing military veterans were held over the past two months to prepare for the conference.

These included the MK Military Veterans Association, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army Military Veterans Association, and associations representing veterans from the former homeland states.

“Key to all these processes has been and will continue to be to ensure that the association is established and functions in a fair, inclusive, just, transparent, and accountable manner at all times,” Motumi said.

President Jacob Zuma is expected to speak at the conference on Monday.

– SAPA