Military Veterans Bill [B1-2011]: deliberations

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Defence and Military Veterans

30 May 2011
Chairperson: Mr M Motimele (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Director-General of the Department of Military Veterans briefed the Committee on the proposed amendments to Clauses 1, 4 and 13 of the Bill. The proposed amendment to Clause 1 made allowance for a veteran who failed to complete his/her military training due to injury or illness sustained during the training.  The amendment to Clause 4 omitted the phrase “Authority of President” from the heading of the clause.  The phrase “Patron-in-Chief” was substituted.  The amendment to Clause 13 omitted the requirement that members of the Advisory Council must be military veterans.

The Committee accepted the proposed amendments without further debate.  Formal deliberations on the Bill would commence on 1 June 2011.

The Member from the Democratic Alliance queried the wisdom of deliberating on the definition of ‘military veteran’ before the legal opinion requested from the State Law Adviser was considered.

Meeting report

The Chairperson referred to the articles on the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) that appeared in the Cape Times newspaper on 30 and 31 May 2011.  The articles were written by Mr Michael Kaplan.  He urged Members of the Committee to read the articles and to indicate any disagreement with the contents of the reports.  He noted that the articles only quoted Mr D Manier (DA).

Briefing by the Department of Military Veterans (DMV)
Mr Tsepe Motumi, Director-General, DMV, briefed the Committee on the proposed amendments to Clauses 1, 4 and 13 (see attached document).

The proposed amendment to Clause 1 made allowance for a veteran who failed to complete his/her military training due to injury or illness sustained during the training.  The amendment to Clause 4 omitted the phrase “Authority of President” from the heading of the clause.  The phrase “Patron-in-Chief” was substituted.  The amendment to Clause 13 omitted the requirement that members of the Advisory Council must be military veterans.

Discussion
The Committee accepted the proposed amendments without further discussion.

Ms P Daniels (ANC) said that Clause 13 (2) required members of the Advisory Council to have “knowledge, experience or expertise that would enable the Advisory Council to perform its functions effectively and efficiently”.  The Bill did not specify what knowledge, experience or expertise was required.

Mr Motumi explained that the provision had to be read in the context of Clauses 10 (Establishment of Advisory Council) and 11 (Powers and duties of Advisory Council).

Mr D Maynier (DA) asked for confirmation that the Committee’s acceptance of the proposed amendments to Clauses 1, 4 and 13 did not imply that the clauses had been agreed by the Committee.  He wanted to know if he would have the opportunity to propose further amendments.

Mr A Maziya (ANC) understood that Mr Maynier queried the process that would be followed by the Committee on the Bill.

The Chairperson confirmed that the Committee had accepted the amendments to three clauses in the Bill.  Formal deliberations would commence on 1 June 2011.

Mr Maynier referred to the previous meeting of the Committee on 25 May 2011.  It was not clear if the definition of ‘military veteran’ included SANDF conscripts and members of the Reserve Force.  The State Law Adviser was requested to submit a legal opinion on the matter.  He questioned the wisdom of dealing with the definition before the opinion was considered.

The Chairperson advised that the DMV would address the issue of the definition of ‘military veteran’ at the meeting scheduled for the following day (1 June 2011).

The meeting was adjourned.



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