2005-11-05,+State+blind+to+plight+of+SAs+liberators

Business Day, Johannesburg, 03 November 2005
= **State ‘blind to plight of SA’s liberators’** =

Linda Ensor, Political Correspondent

CAPE TOWN — Government had failed to address the plight of youngsters who had sacrificed their youth to fight apartheid and were now without an income, MPs were told yesterday.

Submissions during hearings in Parliament on the Special Pension Amendment Bill called for the cutoff age of 35 at the date of implementation of the act in December 1996 to be lowered to cater for those who joined the struggle in their early teens and were now unable to find work.

Special pensions were granted to those who met the regulatory age in December 1996 and who had sacrificed a part of their working lives and who qualified for the pension.

Among those making submissions to Parliament’s finance committee were former Umkhonto we Sizwe members, the African National Congress (ANC) Veterans League and the Human Rights Media Centre.

Human Rights Media Centre executive director Shirley Gunn, a member of the ANC in exile, said the amendment bill was based on the mistaken assumption that everyone who qualified for a special pension had applied for one.

She said her research indicated that many people who qualified had not applied for various reasons, including that they had missed the cutoff date. In addition, not all provinces were served with offices.

She said a database of all those detained, imprisoned or banned should be drawn up, and only once this was completed could a cutoff date be contemplated.

Gunn also appealed for former leaders of the mass democratic movement inside SA to be incorporated into the bill’s provisions, and this should not be limited to ANC and Pan Africanist Congress members only.

Creative ways should also be sought to attend to the desperate situation of young people who joined the struggle in their early teens and were without skills and the prospect of work, she said.

National treasury chief operating officer Logan Wort said 15700 people qualified for the special pension out of 36000 applications received over the last nine years.

Unsuccessful applications failed because of the age criteria or the lack of verification and supporting documents.

The amendment bill will also enable the state to pay spouses and orphans of beneficiaries a monthly pension after their death, and not simply the lump sum they are given currently.

This payment will apply retrospectively from December 1 1996. If adopted, the amendment would cost the state an additional R1bn over 50 years.

From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A108541