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Military Pensions Act, 1976 (Act No. 84 of 1976)

7. Determination of pensionable disability

 

(1) In considering an application for a pension or gratuity or in reviewing a pension in terms of this Act, the pensionable disability of a member or deceased member and the degree of such disability shall be determined or redetermined by the Director-General from time to time after consultation with a medical pensions officer.

 

(2)

(a) For the purposes of subsection (1), the Director-General may require that the member whose pensionable disability is under consideration, be examined by a medical practitioner designed by the Director-General.
(b) The medical practitioner who examines the member, shall furnish the Director-General with a report on the physical and mental condition of the member.

 

(3) The medical pensions officer mentioned in subsection (1) may inspect all the documents relating to the state of health of such member.

 

(4) A disease contracted or an injury sustained by a member as a direct result of a pensionable disability or as a direct result of medical treatment authorised by the Director-General for a pensionable disability, shall for the purposes of this section be deemed to be a pensionable disability, unless the Director-General is satisfied that the disease or injury is due to the refusal of the member to undergo medical treatment or to any act of negligence or misconduct on the part of the member, and that the member has not exercised the special care which is was reasonably proper for him to take having regard to his pensionable disability, or that the disease was contracted or the injury sustained in circumstances entitling the member to compensation in terms of any other law or at common law.

 

(5) Subject to the provisions of subsection (6), the degree of the pensionable disability of any member shall be determined by comparison of his physical and mental condition with that of a normal and healthy person of the same age and sex and by determining as nearly as possible the percentage by which his physical and mental condition differ in accordance with the Schedule from that of such a normal and healthy person as a result of his disability.

 

(6) For the purposes of this section and the Schedule—
(a) the degree of a disability which corresponds with a disability specified in the second column of the Schedule, shall be determined at the percentage of disability specified in the third column of the Schedule opposite the disability concerned;
(b) the degree of the disability of a member who suffers from more than one disability, shall be determined by taking the cumulative effect of all the pensionable disabilities from which he suffers, determined in terms of paragraph (a), into consideration, and the total percentage of all such disabilities shall be assessed at not more than one hundred per cent;
(c) the degree of the disability of a member who has lost the total function of one of a pair of limbs or organs before he became a member and thereafter loses the total function of the other limb or organ as a result of military service, shall be determined as if he had lost both such limbs or organs as a result of military service;
(d) the degree of the disability of any member who is killed or dies while performing military service, shall be deemed to be one hundred per cent;
(e) the degree of the disability of a member shall be determined without regard to his earning capacity in any particular occupation;
(g) the degree of the disability of a member which was not caused by military service but aggravated thereby, shall be determined only in respect of that aggravation of such pensionable disability.

 

[Section 7 substituted by section 18 of Act No. 96 of 1983 (Notice No. 1523, GG 8809, dated 13 July 1983)]