I am glad that you
raised the matter of housing for military veterans even though it does not belong here now. Hon Chair, last year we were given a block of flats by Gauteng which has 200 flats, fortunately you come from Gauteng. Two bed roomed flats, open lounge, open kitchen everything, all of those kinds of facilities. At the time when I officially opened that block of flats, there were only 96 occupants, military veterans who came forward, who qualified to occupy those flats. Do you know why? Because, military veterans were promised that they would occupy houses which are 50square metres and these flats were 43square metres. People were reluctant to move into those flats because they were 43square metres. I am just using this as an example.
Currently Gauteng is building 600 houses in Ekurhuleni, I am sitting here I am wondering as to how many military veterans will come forward and occupy those houses. The sad thing about the first example I used is that, people were mobilising those who live in the backyards with their families, who live under the bridges and have nowhere to sleep. They were mobilising them not to occupy flats whose size is 43square metres but to wait for that time when a 50square metre house is built. I am just using that as an example, as a result when we launched, we launched with only 96 families
instead of 200 families. It is only now that people are beginning to come in because they realise that they were misled. They need accommodation and they must come forward and occupy them. We have not as yet secured the full complement of 200.
This means that, as military veterans ourselves, we need to take responsibility that when government offers a particular benefit, irrespective of my own choices, as long as it is habitable, as long as I would be able to maintain my family, as long as I would be able to maintain myself. Hon Chair, we actually had to release what is called the Social Relief of Distress, SRD, to allow people to buy bedding, to buy pots, we did all that. Guess what? People were saying, we are not going to move in here because it is not exactly that 50square metres, it is 43square metres.
There are challenges in the department; there are challenges amongst our military veterans but some of the challenges we have are our own creation. If I am given accommodation which is 43square metres which has a lounge, a bathroom and two bedrooms, why would I not want to occupy that house only because it is short of 7square metres? It is good that this question arose even though it was not a question meant for this session because it offers one an opportunity to clarify some of these things and to explain to South Africans that,
when opportunities are made available and things that you qualify for, which you are entitled to, people should take charge and be responsible and grab those things with both hands.
To raise the issue of education, I would be happy as the portfolio committee. I agree, there maybe those whose school fees has not been paid. That is true but equally there are people like you and I whose children's school fees should never have been paid. Lastly Chair, military veterans by their nature is a highly political charged constituency which understands their own rights. People will say, now you do not want to pay for my child but when we were fighting you did not say I should stand aside because we are fighting. We do have those. We should never have qualified for education support because...