Ex-soldiers meet with SA counterparts

THE Old South African Soldiers in Namibia (OSASN) and the Council of Military Veterans of South Africa have agreed to cooperate to improve the lives of ex-soldiers in this country.

A delegation of OSASN led by its national chairperson, Lukas de Klerk, met with the council and the South African Legion at the Ditsong Museum of Military History on June 11, where they decided to establish an office of the South African Legion in Namibia before September. The OSASN will also send a delegation to the South African Legion’s congress in Johannesburg in September. De Klerk said the message from the former soldiers of the South African Defence Force (SADF) under the leadership of the legion’s president and chairperson of the council’s board, Godfrey Giles, to their Namibian counterparts, is that the latter are not forgotten, that they want to help, and that they will be in contact with the group in Namibia. OSASN is lobbying for ex-SWATF and Koevoet members to get veteran’s status in South Africa to be eligible to receive benefits under the Military Veterans Act in South Africa. Many of these ex-soldiers have registered with OSASN, a registration process whose legitimacy was questioned. But De Klerk maintained that the registration process is lawful and that this process continued until July 13.