Chairperson, she is our child that we rescued under the most extreme conditions, and a child whose birth was beamed across the world as a wonder of the Defence Force. We have here with us the two helicopter pilots who rescued her mother. I ask that Mr Klopper stand up ... [Applause.] ... and, Mr Chris Berlyn, stand up please ... [Applause.] ... and the medical officer who delivered the child, Dr Nengovhela. [Applause.] Today, I am the mother of another child that was born in wonderment, and we have adopted young Rosita as a member of the Defence Force family. She has become a symbol of the commitment of and everything the SANDF represents: technical skills and expertise; humanity; bravery; discipline; and empathy for the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves in difficulty. This is what we strive for at all times. [Applause.] We are continually working to ensure that our military is infused with all these noble values. This is the culture we insisted on in our new democracy, because this is the culture that we had when we struggled for freedom. We follow a very proud tradition of our military veterans, sons and daughters of Africa, who sacrificed their lives for us to be here today, living in peace and harmony and security. We can only hope that they look at us with the same pride as a continuation of their work, as we look at them with pride and gratitude.
However, Chairperson, allow me to digress on this point. Sadly, even though these military veterans have made such sacrifices for us to be here today, we have not, unfortunately, given them the most basic honour that they deserve: a life of retirement in dignity. I was horrified to learn that the matter of the pensions due to them, that would enable them to live out their retirement in some acceptable level of comfort, had not been finalised.
Here are people who fought for our struggle and they are unable to pay the bonds of their houses. Some of them are living in shacks. The agreements on their pensions, forged during the negotiations process that ushered in our democracy and which was endorsed by successive Cabinets, have not been implemented. The basic principle of caring for our veterans has not been adhered to. It should be of great concern to all of us that 15 years down the line, we have not honoured our commitment to these outstanding people. I therefore took the unconventional step of calling my chiefs on Sunday and begging for money from their meagre budgets to fulfill this right. All of Sunday and Monday the Military Command Council met to discuss this unusual posture of a begging Minister, but it worked. My knees are a bit grazed, but it worked.
It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce to all our nonstatutory force military veterans that we are now able to make adjustments in our budget to ensure that we can provide you with a pension on which you can live. [Applause.] This will be implemented incrementally, and the first adjustment will be done this month on 15 May. [Applause.] I may add that any of the military veterans is free to take me out to lunch; they can afford it now. [Laughter.]
My sincere gratitude goes to Gen Ngwenya, Military Command Council, the Secretaries of Defence and their staff, as well as my advisers for making this possible. And when I say the whole of Sunday and Monday, I really mean the whole of Sunday and Monday. They really went out of their way to ensure that today we are able to give honour to our veterans.
I did digress, Chairperson, but it was necessary and I am glad you allowed me to, because this is a major breakthrough for our military veterans right now. The Deputy Minister, who is responsible for the new Department of Military Veterans, will deal in greater detail with the work we have put in place to ensure that we can honour these people.
However, as I was saying, hon members will recall, we wasted no time in establishing the Interim National Defence Force Service Commission last year whose members, I hope, are with us here because I am extremely grateful for the work that they've put in. The commission has done sterling work over the past year and we are already implementing three of its proposals, which I shall now proceed to read. The first one: the commission recommended and worked on a draft Bill to enact the permanent National Defence Force Service Commission. We hope the Bill will go through the parliamentary process in this month. This will give our dispensation the legal status that it requires.
The second recommendation is related to the improvement of the basic salaries of members of the SANDF from salary levels 2 to 12. The President, as Commander-in-Chief, announced the increases in December 2009. This directive was effected immediately with salary increases ranging from 2% to 65% for all members of the SANDF on this level, with effect from 1 December 2009. We have done this as part of our commitment to ensuring that members of the SANDF are remunerated at levels that are in line with their responsibility and our responsibility towards them. And because we had a new dispensation, this was possible.