The North West Department of Human Settlements together with officials from the Moses Kotane Municipality and the South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA) extended the Housing Consumer Education to Military Veterans in the Moses Kotane Municipality.
The purpose of the exercise was to educate military veterans on the specification of their houses and how to take care of them going forward. According to Lesley Moremedi, an official of the Department, all beneficiaries of the Breaking New Grounds (BNG) houses must not sign a happy letter before they inspect their houses at its completion.
The department of human settlements has planned to build about 61 military veterans houses across the province for this financial year. In the Moses Kotane local municipality only six military veterans will receive their houses during this financial year. The housing project is administered jointly between the Department of the Military Veterans (DMV) and the National Department of Human Settlements (DHS) in terms of a memorandum of Understanding. The DMV provided the departments with a list of beneficiaries who are eligible for housing allowance.
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An official for Housing Development in the Department, Ezekiel Thathane, indicated that there was a qualifying criteria for beneficiaries which was provided by the Military Veterans. It stipulates that military veterans deserve housing if they are on the DMV data base and if they fell under the Act that was formulated for the provision of housing to military veterans. In addition, the veteran must be unemployed or receiving pension, or if they are working their income must be below R125 000 per annum.
Mr Ramoabi Monageng is one of the six military veterans eligible to benefit. Monageng, was a soldier for the former Bophuthatswana regime for eight years (1986-1994) and further joined the South Africa National Defense force for three years,(1994-1997). He is currently unemployed and married with six children. “We have long been waiting for the houses and finally I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Covid 19 also was a stumbling block because if it wasn’t for the pandemic I think we could be occupying the houses at the moment” said Monageng.
The Department has committed to prioritise this housing project as mandated by the national department of Human Settlements.
