Deputy Minister Thabang Makwetla: Defence Dept Budget Vote 2022/23

• Published date: 24 May 2022
• Publication title: South African Official News

The Department of Military Veterans continues to make significant advances against the huge backlog it commenced its mandate with. The political support of the President through the PTT (Presidential Task Team) as led by the Deputy President was a significant intervention in this regard.

During the year in review DMV registered important success by installing ICT systems assisted by SITA, which will enable the automation of DMV's business processes. What remains to be done is for employees in the different areas of the Department's management, to be trained in these technologies. The Department will now strive to migrate the administration of all benefits and services onto this Integrated Data Management System.

Furthermore, the Department is already implementing its own systems in the Corporate Services and Financial Administration sections such as BAS (the Basic Accounting System) and PERSAL (the Personal Salary System). What remains outstanding is the installation of LOGIS (the Logical Information System) as the Department endeavours to fulfil the requirements of being a standalone vote, which it now enjoys. The R133.3 million allocated to program 1, Administration, will among others be utilised to realise the above plans.

Related to this strategic enablers is the pleasing development that the PTT has successfully re-established the verification process of military veterans to relieve the frustration of many, due to their inability to access DMV support because they are not on the data-base. In spite of the teething problems encountered, the verification team has made tremendous progress. In the interest of advancing administrative justice, the PTT has elected to establish an Appeals Committee of the Verification Panel, in order to provide recourse to applicants who may not be satisfied with the rulings of the Verification Panel. The ministry wishes to appeal to all military veterans to lend their support to this work in order for government to ensure that their resources are not abused by those who are intent on defrauding government resources meant for military veterans.

The verification process has also thrown up the urgent need to attend to the call by members of former self-defense-units to be verified and for a credible database of their members to be created. This will necessarily include a determination of the support policy tailored to their needs. It is a matter which our parliamentarians will be expected to deal with expeditiously in order to...