Suzan Chala
South Africa’s freedom fighters won a significant battle recently when an out-of-court settlement secured the pensions that had been due to them since 1996, but had never been paid.
Despite its noble language and intentions, the Special Pensions Act of 1996 which paved the way for monthly payments to former members of Umkhonto weSizwe and Azanian Peoples’ Liberation Army and political prisoners was never properly implemented. Its beneficiaries were forced to take legal steps against the government to get what is rightfully theirs.
“An out-of-court settlement was reached. Our clients were paid their pensions for the first time after years of waiting,” said Geoff Budlender of the Constitutional Litigation Unit at the Legal Resources Centre, who represented the complainants.
But only six former freedom fighters benefited from the settlement more than 40% of members of the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association are still waiting to receive their money.
Monwabisi Maqogi regularly phones the Special Pensions Administration in the Department of Finance to ask if his application has been successful. Maqogi (35) has been waiting in vain since his second application in February last year. His first application in 1996 was unsuccessful because he was “under age”.
“When we were recruited into fighting against apartheid, nobody asked us our ages it didn’t matter. But now that we have to be paid, age becomes an issue,” said Maqogi.
Maqogi loves children and planned to have six of his own that was before the apartheid security forces decided to enforce their brand of “family planning” during torture sessions after he was arrested under the Terrorism Act in 1986.
The sessions, which lasted for “about an hour”, were performed by more than one security policeman. Maqogi’s penis was crushed when heavy objects were dropped on it. “I don’t feel anything I am useless when it comes to that department [sex],” he sobbed this week.
After Maqogi was charged with terrorism, he was forced to drop out of school at the age of 17. “I was doing standard eight when I got arrested.”
Maqogi has difficulty finding employment because of his poor mental health. “I can’t lift heavy things, I get blackouts and my memory is very poor”. He lives in a shack in Khayelitsha and is supported by his wife who earns R225 a week.
Maqogi is one of the many men and women who fought for freedom for all South Africans but today have to constantly beg from neighbours and friends.
According to Lebona Mosia, the secretary general of the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association, more than 40% of its members who have applied for the pension have still not received it.
Mosia said the association was “putting pressure” on the Ministry of Defence through the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence to speed up the process. “There has, however, been progress since the appointment of a new board of the Special Pensions Administration early this year,” he said.
The association is now looking into contesting the exclusion of under-35 freedom fighters in the Special Pensions Act.
“It’s not fair, no one was asked their ages when they joined the struggle, nor did they contribute less because they were younger so why should they be excluded now?” said Mosia.
Several attempts to contact the finance’s department’s Special Pensions Administration this week were unsuccessful.