Speech by the President of the SANMVA Kebby Maphatsoe during the SANMVA Limpopo Provincial Conference held at the Landmark Protea Hotel, Polokwane. 21 - 23 March 2014. Comrades and compatriots We are honoured to form part of this important historic Provincial Conference of SANMVA since the National Conference that relaunched SANMVA as a statutory body as espoused by Section 7 of the Military Veterans Act 18 of 2011. Your Provincial Conference is historic from the point of view that it is our first Provincial Conference since the passing on of our first Commander in Chief of the democratic state, the father of our nation and the international struggle icon, Cde President Rolihlahla Mandela. As we console ourselves, we are confident that his ideas will forever shape the generations of man to come. Our Commander in Chief was an extraordinary son of man. He was amongst the rare species under this sun. Our country and the world need more leaders of his calibre to resolve the problems of poverty, disease and underdevelopment facing humanity. We need more than one million Mandelas to construct a new world social order. This requires more discipline and commitment from our ranks. This requires of us to strive to emulate his exemplary leadership and courage. The first Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe and many other of our struggle stalwarts such as OR Tambo, Vuyisile Mini, and many others from our different formations, have dedicated their entire lives for the freedom of our people. It is therefore befitting that your Provincial Conference salutes these heroes and heroines of our struggle for the heroic work done. We take the occasion of this rare Provincial Conference to salute all the heroes and heroines of our struggles, the unsung martyrs who volunteered their souls for the freedom and dignity of our people. We pay tribute to these sons and daughters of our soil. May their souls rest in peace. Your conference is taking place against the background of the most complex unfolding events taking place in our country and the whole world. The world environment has become as complex as more than before. The reason why we should unite all military veterans is to counter the unpatriotic offensive that seeks to destabilise the unity of our nation and the continent. We have to work for the unity of all military veterans in order to build a new social order in Africa. This Provincial Conference is taking place a day after we have celebrated Human Rights Day in which we remember the 54th Anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 where 69 lives were lost. Apartheid was the most cruel system of human oppression and exploitation. That was the reason why the entire international community declared it a crime against humanity. The President of our country, His Excellency, Jacob Zuma, presented a comprehensive account of the failures and the achievements of our government in the past twenty years of our democratic dispensation. It is for this reason that we should take this opportunity to give a critical analysis of the period of our struggle in the past twenty years. We should however appreciate the wisdom and the leadership of the ruling party under His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, the Patron in Chief of all military veterans for having established the Department of military veterans. This will go a long way to address the plight of many of our military veterans. But we need to be much worried by the slow pace of work in this regard. We need to exert more pressure to ensure that the living conditions of our military veterans are improved. This year the Minister of finance has allocated R2,1 billion to the Department of Military Veterans, of which R504 million is for the 2014/2015 financial year and the remainder for the next two financial years. Even if we appreciate, we feel that this is not enough to resolve the many problems faced by our military veterans throughout the country. We need to put more collective effort to ensure that the budget is increased and the roll out programme is accelerated. We need to see tangible work of projects aimed at making the lives of our members better. We also need a more collective effort to ensure that the provincial government and municipalities are engaged to make sure they also participate in the implementation of the Military Veterans Act with regards to the rollout of benefits. The National government alone cannot deliver these services without the other two spheres of government. We hope that even if the allocated budget for this financial year is not yet enough, even if it cannot satisfactorily address our problems, we can use it as a foundation to advance our objectives. It was you the Commanders and Commissars of our liberation armies who accelerated the arms struggle and occupied the forefront trenches to liberate our people. Today as a result of your contribution, we see our people executing their struggles under much more improved conditions. We meet here today, when on the 6th April we will be commemorating thirty five years since the brutal execution of one of our most outstanding revolutionary fighters, Cde Kalushi Solomon Mahlangu. Cde Solomon Mahlangu would remain to be a monument of the struggles of our people inspiring generations of young people. We will always remember his courageous words at the face of the Apartheid gallows when he said Mama, Mama, tell my people that i love them so much, tell them that my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of our liberation and they must continue fighting. Indeed the blood of heroic son of our soil and many others has saw us witnessing the 1994 democratic breakthrough. A period that saw the end and the beginning of a new era of our struggle. The fall of the pariah Apartheid state. We have to continue with our struggle with the same zeal, as we fought the racist apartheid regime. The new terrain of oour struggle for the socio-economic transformation of our country is more complex than when we were faced with the task of dismantling the apartheid regime. As we celebrate twenty years of our democracy, indeed we are of the firm view that South Africa is no more the same again. But at the same time we need to commit ourselves that more is still to be done to change the living conditions of military veterans for the better. One of the most important tasks of our Association is to take care of the welfare of the military veterans and their dependants. History is living proof that in many instances freedom fighters are neglected after liberation. This is a worldwide phenomenon that has to be fought. We have seen many of the freedom fighters accross the world living under harsh conditions, terrible conditions of poverty and unemployment. Even many of our cadres still find themselves without shelter, food or any of the essential services. The new improved conditions of our military veterans and their dependants have also created many challenges to our Association. There is now a high emergence of splinter groups sowing divisions within the military veterans community influenced by greed and self benefit. These are enemies of military veterans development and are working hard to reverse the gains made so far. Members of SANMVA should take their rightful responsibility by ensuring that they take the forefront in building healthy South African Military Veterans Association in regions. We need to ensure that we assist in building the unity and cohesion of our Association. Our task is to spearhead an aggressive rollout programme of benefits throughout the country to build a strong South African Military Veterans Association. Members of SANMVA are the custodian of the establishment of the Military Veterans Act and the Department, we therefore have to defend our Association and guard it jealously. We have a task of ensuring we go all out in mobilising the whole military veterans community to have access to their rightful benefits. We need to ensure that our structures service members and take care of needs of military veterans. We need to ensure that every military veterans of our country fulfills their patriotic duty and vote. As a civil society body we need to ensure that every citizen of our country participates freely in the upcoming elections. We hope that we will spend the duration of this Provincial Conference deliberating to the fullest. It is our traditions that we have robust debates to have the best understanding of the material conditions we find ourselves in. We need to open to the fundamental principle of criticism and self criticism. This is the only way to restore the true traditions and values of our Associaton that have made SANMVA a formidable force to be reckoned with. Yhe few but the better. We wish you a successful conference. Mazlunge izinto zamaCommander mazilunge.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 10:15:55 +0000