Madam Speaker, as the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, we wish to present these proposals to Parliament. I wish to thank members of the joint standing committee for the tireless efforts to ensure that we are able to put these proposals together.
These proposals took time to put together because we had to call on public hearings to get veterans to come and speak for themselves. We also had to get other stakeholders to make presentations in order to bring about an improvement in the lives of military veterans. These are the sets of proposals that the committee puts before the House for adoption.
Most importantly we are also grateful to the Minister of Housing who, during her speech, indicated that she is prepared to make housing available for unemployed military veterans.
Again, some of the proposals here deal with the Non-Statutory Forces, NSF, Pension Fund. This particular fund should be reviewed because you find a situation where membership of this fund is applied for by those who are not employed. Those who are employed as Members of Parliament and those who are even employed in departments, for instance, cannot access the NSF pension. Those who have tried to have access, even within the military itself, find it very difficult to pay it back because there are debits in their bank accounts.
With this, we wish to thank the Minister for the role he played in being supportive to the committee and in also ensuring that these measures reached the stage they are at now. Fortunately these measures have been adopted at the policy conference of the ANC. I thank you. [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.