Johannesburg — SA's provincial governments are expected to be tasked with the duty of rolling out support and welfare programmes to military veterans, in line with a proposed new policy to recognise them .

The ministerial task team on military veterans, which has been formulating new policy guidelines since June, is expected to recommend that veterans' support programmes extend to the provinces and municipalities.

"Part of the recommendations that the task team will be presenting to the (defence) minister and Cabinet is the development of a common framework for all spheres of government," said Ntime Skosana, spokesman for Deputy Defence Minister Thabang Makwetla , who headed the task team.

Gauteng set the ball rolling this month when it announced the establishment of a veterans desk to "co-ordinate all activities and programmes relating to the military veterans in the province".

Military veterans, particularly former liberation fighters, are emerging as some of the biggest beneficiaries under the new administration, after 15 years of neglect that saw many of them living in poverty.

"It must be the premiers in the provinces who take care of military veterans, and mayors in municipalities," said Kebby Maphatsoe, chairman of the South African National Military Veterans Association (Samva), also a member of the task team.

Samva was formed last year and incorporates members of former apartheid-era security and former Bantustan security forces, along with liberation fighters.

Last month, the African National Congress (ANC) established a veterans' league, which became the third autonomous body alongside the women's and youth leagues. This was in line with a resolution of the ANC's Polokwane conference to recognise the former fighters.