Nyusi wants dossier on veterans’ pensions closed

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Nyusi wants dossier on veterans’ pensions closed

7:58 CAT | 18 Aug 2017

File photo / President Filipe Nyusi

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday insisted that the long-running saga of attributing pensions to veterans of the liberation war and to demobilised soldiers must be concluded during the present government’s term of office.

Speaking in Maputo at an extraordinary meeting of the Consultative Council of the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs, Nyusi said he found it strange that the registration of veterans began 31 years ago, and has not yet concluded – especially in light of the current population census which has counted over 26 million Mozambicans in just 15 days.

Nyusi added that he had now received information that, at least as far as the veterans of the national liberation struggle are concerned, registration is now almost over, with the exception of a few pending cases. He said that registration must be closed, in order to move on to other matters – such as verifying the quality of veterans’ pensions, and the question of their housing and other benefits.

According to the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, Eusebio Lambo, between 1986 and 2017, a total of 169,932 veterans and demobilised soldiers were registered. Of these, 92,092 were veterans of the national liberation struggle, and 77,840 were citizens who had been demobilised, from both the government army and the Renamo rebels, since independence.

These figures raise serious questions. How is it possible that there are more veterans from the independence struggle, which lasted for ten years (1964-1974), than there are for the entire post independence period, when Mozambique had conscription in force, and was fighting against aggression from Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and from apartheid South Africa, which created and supplied the Renamo army?

As for those demobilised since independence, the Ministry figure is too small. From the figures released by the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), at the end of the 1994 demobilisation of the government and Renamo armies, we know that the total number demobilized in that exercise was 78,660 – more than the figure of 77,840 given by Lambo.

To this number must be added all those troops demobilised from the government army prior to the 1992 peace agreement, and those demobilised from the current armed forces (FADM) after 1994.

Lambo said that, since 1986, pensions have been fixed for 160,706 former soldiers (or 94.6 per cent of the total registered). 34,512 children of veterans and of demobilised soldiers were granted exemptions from enrolment fees for secondary education and 1,426 were granted scholarships to higher education institutions in the country.

Nyusi questioned how these scholarships were allocated. While it was true that the children of veterans could enter higher education free of charge, this privilege should also depend on academic merit.

The concept of a scholarship, Nyusi said, was that it is a grant for university candidates with a good school record, but whose parents cannot pay for a higher education course. It was a reward, not simply because the candidate’s parents had fought for the country, but also in recognition of the candidate’s own merits. “So greater transparency is needed in the granting of scholarships”, he declared.

Nyusi also wanted to see a Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs that is small, but efficient. Currently the Ministry employs 464 people, and the President clearly doubted whether there is enough work for them all.

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“If you are too big, then the Ministry staff don’t do anything”, he warned. “You don’t need to be like the Ministry of Economy and Finance, but you can be a ministry that produces more. The size of the Ministry is dictated by its vocation, and not by the number of people it employs. You must manage a simple system that can be followed and controlled”.

Nyusi also objected to the Ministry paying rent for the buildings where some of its services are located. He regarded this as a waste of money, and wanted to see the Ministry managing its own property.

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Source: AIM