WATCH: Khoisan king not happy with ‘formal recognition’

Moves to formally recognise the Khoisan people as a nation means “nothing”, according to the king of the Khoisan.

“This means nothing in terms of our protest here as one of our demands is the recognition of the Khoisan as the First Nation of South Africa,” said King Khoisan.

He and a small group of followers have been camping in tents outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria since the end-2017.

In that time, they even planted a small vegetable garden to feed themselves.

His comment came after a March meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and a delegation of the National Khoi-San Council (NKC), led by its chairperson, Cecil Le Fleur.

The NKC was established to facilitate discussions on key issues between the government and Khoisan communities.

It consists of five historical Khoi and San communities as vetted in the official government reports called the Status Quo reports.

Each of the five main communities have their subgroupings who are also represented on the NKC.

Ramaphosa said the meeting discussed the need for members of the Khoisan community to be involved in land reform programmes and rural economic development.

“It also discussed transitional issues during implementation of the Traditional and Khoisan Leadership Act.”

Ramaphosa applauded the council for its efforts over many years to ensure recognition of Khoisan communities’ status.

He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensure the effective implementation of the act and the integration of the Khoisan into traditional leadership structures.

“This marks the start of a new era for the development of the Khoi and San of South Africa. This is a path that we must walk together,” Ramaphosa said.

King Khoisan, however, dismissed the talks.

“The government is reluctant to meet with the right people concerning the issues of recognition, land, language and restoring of identity.

“They always failed to listen to our recommendations on how we want to be included.”

“Ramaphosa went ahead signing the Khoisan Traditional Leadership Bill even though it was rejected by the majority of our people,” King KhoiSan SA said.

He said that the bill did not give justice to community members, “because we are still termed coloureds on the government Z83 forms”.

KhoiSan and his fellow protesters want the “coloured” label to be removed from all official papers and be replaced with “Khoisan”.

They also want Kwadi-Khoe to also be listed as an official language in South Africa and for the Khoisan to be given land and resources to continue their cultures and traditions.

“This is a smack in our faces,” he said.

“We will not move, the bill changes nothing.”

While the presidency has yet to respond to recent requests for comment, acting presidential spokesperson Tyrone Seale previously said King Khoisan’s group was opposed to the land reform process because they believe “Africans and whites have no claim to land ownership”.

Seale said government had taken steps through the act to respond to their demands years ago.

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