THE Minister of Defence Thandi Modise, deputy minister Thabang Makwetla and Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele were rescued by the South African Police and special forces after they were held hostage by liberation struggle war veterans at St George Hotel in Irene, outside Pretoria.
The war veterans, who are protesting against the government’s failure to pay them reparations, were meeting Modise and other government ministers at the St George Hotel.
The war veterans blocked the exit of the meeting venue after accusing Modise and other government ministers of not adequately addressing their grievances, according to Gungubele in a video statement.
Police had to break down the doors, fired stun grenades into the venue where ministers were being held hostage.
Ministers were then ushered to safety and whisked away by Special Forces.
Police have reportedly made several arrests and about eight war veterans were taken to hospital.
The hostage drama at St George Hotel follows a sit-in protest by the irate veterans at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters early this week.
On Tuesday, the former soldiers were evacuated from the ANC’s headquarters after camping there while demanding a meeting with the ANC’s top officials.
The war vets are demanding R4 million each for reparations for all soldiers who participated in the liberation struggle.
The military veterans who had staged a protest were from Azapo, PAC and the ANC.
The Liberation Struggle War Veterans (LSWV) group is made up of former soldiers from the ANC’s uMkhonto weSizwe, the PAC’s APLA and Azania’s Azania members. Earlier this weekend the veterans camped outside the ANC’s headquarters and demanded a meeting with the party’s leaders.
Last year in 2020, following a number of challenges raised by the Military Veterans, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed the Presidential Task Team chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza and includes Minister in the Presidency, the Minister and Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.
The task team has since developed a comprehensive approach to address the challenges identified through various interactions with the Military Veterans Associations, and also initiated strategic institutional capacities to provide adequate services on a sustainable basis.
Amongst others, the Task Team has identified challenges related to Social Relief of Distress and the need to provide for educational assistance, the Provisioning of decent housing, and access to land, job opportunities and provision of decent housing.
According to the Presidency, the Task Team continues to receive reports on progress achieved by the different work streams focussing on legislative review of specific provisions in the current Military Veterans Act 18 of 2011; Socio-economic support; pensions and benefits; Verification, database cleansing and enhancement with the aim of ensuring that there is clear and comprehensive rules and policies are applied to ensure that bona fide military veterans are registered on the Department of Military Veterans database.
Mabuza was not able to attend the meeting at St George Hotel on Thursday night.
- Inside Politics
