In South Africa the lives of all military veterans are from 1 April 2012 guided by the Military Veterans Act, 2011(No 18 of 2011) and its regulations, which fact challenges us to take a proper look at this piece of legislation so that we as military veterans from the statutory forces remain significant within this new world created for all military veterans in South Africa

The first important thing to understand is that the Military Veterans Act, 2011(No 18 of 2011) created a special body where all military veterans must be represented, and if we as military veterans from the statutory forces are absent from that body or not properly represented on this body then our veterans will suffer due to that lack of commitment

The South African National Military Veterans Association, more commonly known as SANMVA, is the umbrella structure created in terms section 7(1)(a) of the Military Veterans Act, 2011 (No 18 of 2011) to represent all the military veterans in South Africa from both the statutory and non-statutory forces at the Department of Military Veterans

The Director- General of the Department of Military Veterans in conjunction with the military veterans organizations must create mechanisms to ensure that SANMVA serves as an umbrella structure representing military veterans organizations with the aim to-

• Represent military veterans organizations in a fair manner
• Conduct its business in a fair, transparent and accountable manner
• Hold free, fair and regular elections
• Report at least once a year to the Minister

The CMVO at national level is represented in the SANMVA structure by the military veterans from its affiliated military veterans’ organizations also known as member organisations. This means that all over the country from any of the member organisations of the CMVO we will need military veterans to carry the hat of the CMVO at the SANMVA structure in the regions so that the needs, aspirations and expectations of our statutory veterans who served in the Union Defence Force, SADF and SANDF are heard, addressed and met by the Department of Military Veterans

At provincial, regional and local level it is therefore essential that the military veterans from the CMVO’s different members organizations throughout the country step up in their different communities to ensure that we as military veterans from the statutory forces are properly represented within the SANMVA provincial, regional and local structures and are actively involved in negotiations with government to secure the benefits for our military veterans too.

If you are committed to the cause of the military veterans from the statutory forces and feel that you can make a contribution to the plight of our military veterans by representing the CMVO in any of these structures of SANMVA in your province, region or local area we invite you to contact the CMVO at cmvohr@gmail.com