Due to budgetary constraints and cumbersome processes, only four individual veterans’ projects were processed during the last financial year.
The funding of individual veterans’ projects remains a serious outcry from veterans of the liberation struggle.
The current backlog stands at 11 139 such projects, which require funding in an amount of N$2.2 billion.
This was announced by defence and veterans’ affairs minister Frans Kapofi in the National Assembly last week.
The minister is asking the National Assembly to approve the allocation of N$874 million for veterans affairs for the 2022/2023 financial year.
He said 6 992 veterans received an improvement meant for welfare grants under the Veterans’ Act.
Veterans’ affairs facilitated the provision of medical assistance to 17 veterans whose treatment could not be managed at State health facilities, and who also did not have medical aid nor the funds to pay for private medical services.
A total of 96 veterans received direct psychological counselling during the 2021/22 financial year.
A total of 1 870 beneficiaries received their monthly subvention inheritance grants.
The government committed financial resources from 2009 to 2022 to pay monthly subventions, lump sums, individual veterans’ projects, funeral assistance, educational grants, medical assistance and land resettlement.
Other commitments include veterans’ housing, improvement of the welfare of ex-Plan combatants and the erection of tombstones. The ministry will continue to make sure that all programmes and projects aimed at improving the socio-economic wellbeing of veterans are implemented, despite the limited resources.
On matters relating to the graves of departed heroes and heroines, Kapofi said in defence that the government is in the know of each grave reported.
He added that in total, the ministry has so far identified 291 unmarked single graves which are believed to contain a single body ,and 94 graves that are believed to contain more than one body.
The ministry has a programme that includes the geo-referencing of all the graves which was done, and the next phase is to establish which graves will become shrines, and which ones whose remains must be exhumed and be interred to nearby shrines.
In this regard, the ministry is in this instance warning anybody who still thinks of exhuming or touching any grave of former Plan combatants to desist forthwith from such actions, regardless of their intentions.
“Another aspect that has been making rounds in the print, electronic and sometimes on social media is the story apparently quoting the Auditor General’s report that the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs has paid over N$8 million to ghost veterans. I would like to inform the House that after verification, no such evidence was found. The problem was a rather inaccurate recording and misinterpretation of data,” Kapofi stated.
However, the ministry has since taken serious note of the auditor’s recommendations, and this matter is being continuously addressed.