By OBAKENG MAJE
202 June 2025- The North West MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Oageng Molapisi said his department has promised to expeditiously arrange a meeting between North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi and the province’s military veterans. This comes after a Provincial Imbizo on the Military Veterans Housing Programme held at Mogwase, near Rustenburg.
Molapisi further said the Imbizo was held in line with the resolution of the Human Settlements MINMEC, provided feedback and information on the interventions approved by Cabinet to fast-track the delivery of adequate housing to Military Veterans.
He added that key challenges affecting the programme include disagreements about approved plans by the Department of Military Veterans, locations, where homes are built, qualifying criteria, untraceable members and beneficiaries, and a lack of serviced sites amongst others.
“This is despite veterans of the armed forces being either homeless, living with their families, or living in unfavourable conditions as a result of the programme’s poor performance.
“Before the start of the Imbizo, we handed over three completed houses to Military Veterans at Mabele-A-Pudi village and Bapong. We urge the veterans to exercise patience as the government works in their best interest,” said Molapisi.
He said that as a caring government, they recognise the sacrifices of military veterans towards achievement of democracy and freedom. Molapisi said he will personally facilitate the meeting between the departments and Mokgosi to address their challenges.
“We are aware of most of them and we are more than willing to address them. We further promise to engage with municipalities through the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to encourage them to also address their needs, such as the provision of service sites for the construction of houses.
“The Department of Human Settlements should also ensure that they make provision for those who are still in service and earning more and are not qualifying for the houses through the First Home Finance Programme,” he said.
Molapisi said other resolutions he made were to engage the Department of Public Works to avail properties that are no longer in use.
“To track and monitor progress, the Military Veterans Housing Programme will now be discussed at MUNIMEC meetings, where I interact with municipalities on a range of issues about service delivery.
“As our liberators, I pledge to do everything in my power to make sure you get what you deserve, and I will use the departmental budget speech to further address your concerns. There will be less talk and more action this time,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to military veterans, most of their challenges emanate from mistreatment from government officials, as most of their calls are not being answered. They said their applications take forever to be processed and the fact that they do not want to be served by people who have never been in the military, as they would not understand their plight.
The Guardian 