THEY sacrificed their lives when they joined the liberation struggle to free the country from the clutches of apartheid.
But now, 26 years after democracy, some military veterans claim they live in squalid conditions.
“We don’t have water or electricity in this neighbourhood. We use mobile toilets, which are in the bush, faraway from our houses.
“The roads are also bad,” said Godfrey Legodi, a former PAC-aligned Azanian People’s Liberation Army guerilla from Akasia in Ga-Rankuwa, Tshwane.
He said he and 150 other military veterans were moved to RDP houses from various parts of Gauteng in July last year.
Legodi said there was one water tank for every 20 households.
He told Daily Sun there were no clinics, schools or shops nearby.
“There are no taxis in this area because of the bad roads. Even motorists are unwilling to take their chances. We need the Gauteng Human Settlements Department to intervene,” he said.
“We’re worried that people will start protesting if the matter is not urgently resolved,” he said.
Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association national spokesman Carl Niehaus said he would follow up on the matter.
“We’ll check whether there was any complaint launched with the Department of Military Veterans,” he said.
Castro Ngobese, a spokesman for Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile, said it would be an insult if veterans lived under such bad conditions.
“Nobody has brought this to our attention. We’ve sent a team of senior officials to assess the conditions of those houses and provide us with a detailed report.
“Once we’ve established the facts, we’ll be in a position to outline what we can do to resolve the problem,” said Ngobese.
