WHEREAS the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) is a Government Department established under the Military Veterans Act, No. 18 of 2011 (the Act) which derives its mandate from the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act No. 108 of 1 996;

AND WHEREAS the Act provides for the establishment of a National Military Veterans' Association which is to be an association representing military veteran organisations nationally as provided for in terms of section 7(1)(a) of the Act;

AND WHEREAS the Act in its definition of a military veteran, recognizes South African citizen who rendered military service to any of the statutory and non-statutory military organisations that were involved on all sides of the country's Liberation War from 1960 until 1994, including those who served in the Union Defence Force before 1961 and those who became members of the South African National Defence Force after 1994;

RECOGNISING that section 16 and 18 of the Constitution provides that everyone has the right to freedom of expression and association;

DESIRING that the National Military Veterans' Association serve as an umbrella body representing military veteran organisations nationally in terms of section 7(1) of the Act.

THEREFORE, the Minister issues the following guidelines on what constitutes substantial membership and the recognition of military veteran organisations in terms of section 7(4).