Chapter 11:16

War Victims Compensation Act

Acts 22/1980, 31/1983 (s. 25), 33/1984 (s. 8), 24/1987 (s. 15), 13/1988, 18/1989 (s. 30), 20/1994 (s. 17), 12/1997, (s.8), 6/2000 (s. 151), 22/2001(s. 4); 6/2005 (s. 17); S.Is. 241/1982 (s. 7), 174/1984.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I

PRELIMINARY Section

1. Short title.

PART II

COMMISSIONER OFWAR VICTIMSCOMPENSATION 3. Commissioner of War Victims Compensation and his powers. PART III

APPLICATION OFACTAND CLAIMSFORAND ENTITLEMENT TO COMPENSATION

4. Application of Act.
5. Claims for compensation.
6. Consideration of claims and entitlement to benefits.

PART IV

COMPENSATION FORDISABLEMENT

7. Assessment of degree of disablement.
8. Disablement pension.
9. Date of accrual of disablement pension.
10. Commutation of disablement pension.
11. Medical examination and treatment.
12. Refund of medical expenses.
13. Vocational training.
14. Benefits for financial loss.
15. Constant attendance allowance.
16. Clothing allowance.
17. Children’s allowance.
18. Travelling and subsistence allowances.

PART V

COMPENSATION FOR DEATH

19. Widow’s pension.
20. Polygamous wives.
21. Children’s pensions.
22. Pensions for other dependants.
23. Funeral expenses.

PART VI

SPECIAL PROVISIONS FORWOMEN AND CHILDREN

24. Special provisions relating to females.
25. Special provisions relating to minors.
26. Educational allowances.

PART VII

GENERAL

27. Medical boards.
28. Assessment of earnings.
30. Compensation to be inalienable.
31. Insolvency of pensioner.
32. Proof of certain particulars.
33. Compensation and other moneys to be paid from Consolidated Revenue Fund.
34. Offences and penalties.
35. Regulatory powers of Minister.
36. Transitional provisions and savings.

SCHEDULES

First Schedule: Degree of Disablement.

Second Schedule: Children’s Pensions and Allowances.

Third Schedule: Table For Calculating Commutation of Pension.

AN ACT to provide for the payment of compensation in respect of injuries to or the death of persons caused by the war; and to provide for matters incidental to or connected with the foregoing.

[Date of Commencement: 14th November, 1980.]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

1    Short title

This Act may be cited as the War Victims Compensation Act [Chapter 11:16].

                       2    Interpretation

(1) In this Act—

“appeal” means an appeal to the Minister in terms of section twenty-nine;

“child”, in relation to a disabled person or deceased person, means an unmarried legitimate or legitimated son or daughter of that person, including a posthumous child, a step-child or a child legally adopted, which son or daughter—

• has not attained the age of nineteen years and is or was at the date of the injury to or death of that person dependent upon him for support; or
• is, in terms of a declaration made in terms of subsection (2), a child for the purposes of this Act;

“claimant” means a person by whom or on whose behalf a claim for compensation is made in terms of section five;

“Commissioner” means the Commissioner of War Victims Compensation referred to in section three;

“compensation” means any compensation, pension, allowance or other benefit, including medical aid, which is payable or provided for under this Act;

“deceased person” means a deceased person in respect of whose death compensation is payable in terms of this Act;

“degree of disablement” means the degree of disablement due to an injury expressed as a percentage of total disablement which shall be taken as one hundred per centum;

“dependant”, in relation to a deceased person, means— (a)       a child or widow of that deceased person; or

(b) any person not referred to in paragraph (a) who was wholly or partly maintained by that deceased person at the date of his death or of the injury which caused his death and for a reasonable period before that date;

“disabled person” means a person suffering from disablement in respect of which compensation is payable in terms of this Act;

“disablement” means disablement for employment or permanent injury or disfigurement;

“disablement pension” means a pension payable in terms of section eight;

“earnings”, in relation to a deceased person or disabled person, means the annual rate of earnings of that person as assessed by the Commissioner in terms of section twenty-four or twenty-eight as the case may be;

“injury” means—

• ill-health, physical or mental incapacity or personal injury; or
• an aggravation to a material extent of pre-existing ill-health, physical or mental incapacity or personal injury;

“medical board” means a medical board appointed in terms of section twenty-seven;

“medical practitioner” means—

• a person who is registered under the Health Professions Act [Chapter 27:19] as a medical

practitioner; or

[Paragraph as amended by section 4 of Act 22 of 2001]

• in the case of a person who practises outside Zimbabwe, a person who is qualified in medicine and approved by the Secretary of the Ministry responsible for health for the purposes of this Act;

“Minister” means the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;

“occupation” 

• includes a profession, calling or trade; or
• means service as a combatant that qualifies the combatant as a war veteran in terms of the War Veterans Act [Chapter 11:15];

[Definition substituted by section 17 of Act 6 of 2005]

“pension” means an annual pension payable during the lifetime of the recipient unless, in terms of this Act, it is payable for a shorter period;

“repealed law” mean the Victims of Terrorism (Compensation) Act [Chapter 340 of 1974] or the Indemnity and Compensation Act, 1975 (No. 45 of 1975);

“the war” means the armed conflict which occurred in Zimbabwe and in neighbouring countries between the 1st January, 1962, and the 29th February, 1980, in connection with the bringing about of, or resistance to, political and social change in Zimbabwe.

(2) The Commissioner may declare any unmarried person who—

• is an apprentice or articled clerk or otherwise undergoing training and has not attained the age of twenty-one years; or
• is incapable of earning a livelihood through mental or physical infirmity which arose before he or she attained the age of nineteen years; and who is the legitimate or legitimated son or daughter, including a posthumous child, a step-child or a child legally adopted, of a disabled person or a deceased person to be a child for the purposes of this Act, and such son or daughter shall be regarded for the purposes of this Act as a child of the disabled person or the deceased person until such time as—
• in the case of a person referred to in paragraph (a), he or she attains the age of twenty-one years or ceases to undergo the training, as the case may be; or
• the Commissioner revokes his declaration; whichever is the earlier.
• Any reference in this Act to the date of injury of a disabled person or deceased person means the date upon which the disabled person or deceased person received the injury which caused his disablement or death or the date upon which the injury first manifested itself, as the case may be:

Provided that, if that date is not established to the satisfaction of the Commissioner, the Commissioner shall, having regard to all the evidence submitted and, if the Commissioner considers it to be necessary or desirable, after considering the report of a medical board, determine the date of injury of the disabled or deceased person, as the case may be, for the purposes of this Act.

• For the purposes of this Act, pre-existing ill-health, physical or mental incapacity or personal injury of a person shall be deemed to have been aggravated to a material extent by a subsequent injury if, where the degree of disablement which would have been applicable had the whole of the condition of the person concerned been

caused by that subsequent injury (hereafter in this subsection called his full degree of disablement) is—

• less than twenty per centum the aggravation in his condition constitutes a degree of disablement of five per centum or more which is not less than one-half of his full degree of disablement;
• twenty per centum or more, the aggravation in his condition constitutes a degree of disablement of not less than ten per centum.

(5) For the purposes of this Act, persons shall be deemed to be married or to have been married if—

• during the war and either inside or outside Zimbabwe they entered into a marriage, form of marriage or intended marriage and were prevented by circumstances arising as a result of the war from having their marriage, form of marriage or intended marriage registered, recorded or solemnized by any governmental or religious authority in the country in which it was entered into; or
• their marriage, form of marriage or intended marriage was entered into according to customary law, notwithstanding that it was not a valid marriage in terms of section 3 of the Customary Marriages Act

[Chapter 5:07]; and any children born of such marriage, form of marriage or intended marriage shall be deemed to be legitimate.