Cape Town - The SA Coloured Corps Forum (SACCF) came out in their numbers to protest outside the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday where they took legal action against the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans for failing to respond to their calls for recognition.
The forum, which represents over 1500 military veterans, approached the court for an order for the department to take the necessary steps to recognise the SACCF as a military veterans organisation after they had engaged with the department multiple times.
“In October last year my client sent an application for recognition as a military organisation to the department which the department claims they didn’t receive. We think that they did receive it and we engaged with them on approximately 25 occasions about this matter,” said SACCF lawyer Tim Dunn.
According to the forum, their legacy has yet to be legitimised by the government, and though many of their members served as part of the SADF before 1994, they feel they have historically been marginalised as a group.
They further approached the government regarding benefits to which they say they are entitled as veterans under the Military Veterans Act, which they were told could only be facilitated upon recognition.
Chairperson Jan Isaacs said: “There is horrible discrimination against us and we have tried many ways to get the government to engage and they didn’t want to. We also spoke to them about Act 18 of 2011 which makes provisions for benefits that we are entitled to, but the government did nothing.”
He said their members were struggling. “The problem we have is that our members are unemployed, disabled, no income, we receive no grant, we have widows who have nothing.
“Many of us are not getting any jobs or support from the government, there are many posts available but the SACC, our members are not recognised, and that is why the forum stood up and said enough is enough,” Isaacs said.