Good morning, everyone. The committee will come to order. I welcome our witnesses in person and those that are appearing distancely. We look forward to their testimony and getting a better understanding of where the department of Veterans Affairs and the Third Party Administrators are in administering the mission act. Im also very interested in hearing more today about the caregivers implementation, as well. Almost every member of our committee, though not physically present at the moment, some are joining us in person and others will be joining us, almost every member of our committee will be participating and is expected in todays hearing. The focus of todays hearing is the implementation of title 1 under the mission act by the department of Veterans Affairs related to Veterans Community care programs and the program of comprehensive assistance to family caregivers. I scheduled this hearing because of my dissatisfaction with the pace of mission implementation. While va officials were
Job sikhala, in a location that we have agreed not to reveal, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you very much, steve, for your invitation to this important interview. Well, its important to have you on this show. You emerged from more than 1. 5 years of pre trial detention in zimbabwe earlier this year. We saw photographs of you last year, shackled, as you were Given Healthcare while still in detention. I just wonder what impact that experience has had on you physically and mentally. It really affected me to the most difficult depth. I have been maltreated as if im a terrorist. I was not given the basic standards that are granted to prisoners, in terms of both International Law and in terms of domestic law. The way i was maltreated is that they never wanted me to get peace. And, also, they never wanted me to get on with my proper mental strength. So thats why they have been shackling me at every turn. There is not any moment when i was visited at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison when i was n
Job sikhala, in a location that we have agreed not to reveal, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you very much, steve, for your invitation to this important interview. Well, its important to have you on this show. You emerged from more than a year and a half of pre trial detention in zimbabwe earlier this year. We saw photographs of you last year, shackled, as you were Given Health Care while still in detention. I just wonder what impact that experience has had on you physically and mentally. It really affected me to the most difficult depth. I have been maltreated as if im a terrorist. I was not given the basic standards that are granted to prisoners, in terms of both International Law and in terms of domestic law. The way i was maltreated is that they never wanted me to get peace. And also they never wanted me to get on with my proper mental strength. So thats why they have been shackling me at every turn. There is not any moment when i was visited at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison when i
Job sikhala, in a location that we have agreed not to reveal, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you very much, steve, for your invitation to this important interview. Well, its important to have you on this show. You emerged from more than a year and a half of pre trial detention in zimbabwe earlier this year. We saw photographs of you last year, shackled, as you were Given Health Care while still in detention. I just wonder what impact that experience has had on you physically and mentally. It really affected me to the most difficult depth. I have been maltreated as if im a terrorist. I was not given the basic standards that are granted to prisoners, in terms of both International Law and in terms of domestic law. The way i was maltreated is that they never wanted me to get peace. And also they never wanted me to get on with my proper mental strength. So thats why they have been shackling me at every turn. There is not any moment when i was visited at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison when i
We saw photographs of you last year, shackled, as you were Given Health Care while still in detention. I just wonder what impact that experience has had on you physically and mentally. It really affected me to the most difficult depth. I have been maltreated as if im a terrorist. I was not given the basic standards that are granted to prisoners, in terms of both International Law and in terms of domestic law. The way i was maltreated is that they never wanted me to get peace. And also they never wanted me to get on with my proper mental strength. So thats why they have been shackling me at every turn. There is not any moment when i was visited at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison when i was not shackled. However, i dont want to continuously lament on this because there are several other zimbabweans who have gone through worse treatment by the same regime that has been there since 1980, others who went as far as losing their lives, when they were in a democratic, in the democratic strug