The Human Rights Media Centre would like to make an oral submission to your Honourable Committee in terms of the rules of parliament

Kindly receive a summary of the aforesaid submission. We request that the committee afford Shirley Gunn, director of the HRMC, the opportunity to make an oral submission at the rescheduled hearing on 2 November 2005.

We trust that that this request will receive the committee’s favourable consideration.

Kind regards,

Shirley Gunn

In 1995 I was approached by the leadership of the ANC in the Western Cape to serve on a committee to make input into draft legislation and to assist in getting memberships forms to ANC members in the region, amongst other tasks. Although I was not able to sustain my involvement on this committee as it was voluntary unpaid work I became painfully aware that most MK combatants I worked with inside South Africa would not qualify for a pension (because of the limitation of age in the Act, namely, 35 years in December 1996) and most that I worked with outside SA would qualify. I applied and was granted the special pension for which I am enormously grateful

In 1999 I became involved in the Ex-political prisoners and Torture Survivor's Group (that became the Khulumani Support Group Western Cape in 2001). A major grievance of members was the difficulty they had in accessing special pensions from Special Pension office in the Western Cape. In order to understand where the fault lines existed I applied to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation for a research scholarship. In July 2000 I was awarded a R12 000 scholarship to do this research over an 18 month period, in my capacity as director of the HRMC.

I have conducted many interviews and/or questionnaires with staff and officials for the Special Pension administration, including Trevor Manual Minister of Finance, Ebrahim Mohammed, part4ime commissioner, MacJerry Lesufi, assistant director, special pensions, Zubeida Barmania, chairperson of the review board, and other staff members. I also interviewed Barbara Hogan, the former chairperson of the portfolio committee of finance, Paul Savel, parliamentary affairs committee coordinator in the auditor's general's office, litigation expert Jeff Budlender Constitutional Litigation LRC, and I prepared a few case studies on applicants who were refused Special Pensions Willie Simmers or who did not even try like Wilfie Rhodes.

Research findings

In the memorandum on the objects of the Special Pensions Amendment Bill 2005 it states that "it is assumed that most persons who qualify for a pension in terms of the Act would have applied (in the extended period allowed for late applications). On the basis of this assumption the bill calls for the dissolution of the board 60 days after the 31 March 2006 and the review board 90 days after that date.

It is my finding that the assumption, that most people have applied, is unsubstantiated.

1) According to MacJerry Lesufi, 29 766 special pensions' applications were received up until the cut off date on December 1997. However, despite this deadline special pension offices were still giving out and accepting forms for the purposes of addressing specific cases and they were also receiving other applications that were put aside as late applications. The reason for accepting late applications, he said, was because Section 8 of the Act was interpreted as giving the special pensions review board the discretion to condone late applications.

We must acknowledge that some people failed to apply because they had missed the cut off date. The further date October 2004 was not well announced.

2) Not all provinces are / were serviced with offices. (Those provinces that had offices were the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Kwazulu Natal, Northern Province and Mmabatho. According to Lesufi the role of the provincial offices "was/is to. provide service to applicants who live in the most remote areas not accessible through modern means of communication; reach these people to help bring in outstanding information on applicants; and, take the special pensions to the people through field trips into the rural areas to provide that face-to-face service vital especially to ill iterate applicants."

Presuming the offices provided this service, how were potential beneficiaries in those provinces without an office reached?

3) In response to the question on the Special Pension administration's intervention to reach potential beneficiaries Ms Hogan former finance portfolio chairperson said in June 2001 that it was her take on "the Special Pensions Act that it should take care of/provide for L'DF activists and all its affiliates because they were banned in the 80's as well as black consciousness movements banned in the 60's and 70's". Ms Hogan was committed to an NGO driven verification process and that the finance department could outsource the work "to a respectable organisation, like the HSRC, to put this together. Provincially based committees should make sure that all those eligible apply. All records must be gathered from all possible sources that worked with eligible special pensioners who must then be informed of their right to a special pension and be encouraged to apply".

I immediately sought Jeff Budlender's legal opinion on the qualification of persons who were members of organisations other than the ANC and PAC. Jeff Budlender's opinion, which I received on 2 July 2001, was that other organisations are not excluded from obtaining benefits under the Act provided the organisation was banned before 2 February 990 and that existed 5 years before that date. This opinion I sent to Ms Hogan. (The opinion also included the qualification age for benefits under the Act. Mr Budlender's opinion is that the Act can not be legally challenged on the grounds that it discriminates against peoples who were not yet 35 on 1 Dec 1996. This category of person's, however, be provided for in another provision yet to be created.)

According to Maclerry Lesufi, in November 2001 "the research team was operating on a small scale putting together the lists of potential beneficiaries as received from the structures of the political organisations mainly received during and post special pension road shows". On 24 July 2003, in response to the same question, he stated that a Special Pension Unit within the Finance Department is putting together an internal research team lead by the politicians to develop a national database of all potential special pensioners in the country. They intend approaching academic institutions, CBO's like Khulumani, political parties, the Mayibuye Centre, Robben Island Prison and other prisons etc. to gather all names from the organizational databases in order to develop one national database in order to reach people who have not applied for a special pension.

In 2003 I learnt that the Special Pensions Department commissioned the African Institute for South Africa in Pretoria to help research the applications that have inadequate information to verify them and to reach those who have not yet applied. Moses Ralinala was the manager of this project.

In October 2005, I learnt from the newly appointed CEO for Special Pensions that this research endeavour was not successful.

If the national research work has not been adequately conducted under the leadership of a professional research body, especially the verification of members of organisations other than the ANC and PAC, then it is not possible to assume that most persons who qualify for a pension in terms of the Act have applied.

I, therefore, think that this quick wrap up of the special pensions unit by March 2006 (even though the original date was December 2001) is not feasible due to the lack of proper reporting, monitoring and research. The research findings of the African Institute for South Africa must be published so that we access what real progress has been made towards reaching all potential beneficiaries and a proper effort must be made so that has every person who qualifies is reached. To this end new applications must still be possible for a defined period of time.