Court Exposes Years of DMV Failures

Statement by Chris Hattingh MP – DA Spokesperson on Defence and Military Veterans:

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the High Court order compelling the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) to process qualifying veteran registration applications, reconsider rejected applications through a functional appeals process, and comply with statutory timelines for service delivery.

This judgment confirms what military veterans and the DA have been saying for years: the DMV is failing the very people it was created to serve.

For years, the DA has raised pension delays, database failures, unanswered calls, ignored emails and poor service delivery through parliamentary questions, committee interventions and oversight visits. Yet veterans continue to face a dysfunctional Department where applications disappear into a bureaucratic black hole, calls go unanswered, emails are ignored and veterans are left without even the most basic feedback.

The Department’s own budget reveals the problem. Administration increases by R30.1 million to R205.2 million, while the programme responsible for direct benefits to veterans is cut by R39.4 million. The Department is getting bigger while service delivery gets worse. Veterans need benefits, not bureaucracy.

The DMV has also failed for years to properly implement the means test required by law. While thousands remain excluded from benefits, the Department still cannot tell Parliament how many beneficiaries have been removed through the means test, how much money has been saved, or whether those savings have been redirected to deserving veterans.
Equally concerning is the failure of the Transversal Ministerial Task Team (TMTT). Presented as the Department’s turnaround solution, it has produced no visible improvement in pensions, database verification, communication or service delivery. Parliament has yet to receive clear evidence of its outputs, costs or achievements.

Military veterans should never have had to go to court simply to force the Department to obey the law.

This judgment is more than a court order. It is an indictment of years of failure, excuses and broken promises.

The Minister and the DMV now have 90 days to prove that military veterans matter more than bureaucracy.