The Western Cape ANC has launched a bid to have key areas of Cape property set aside for Khoi and San land claims dating back to the “genocide” by Dutch colonists in the 17th century.
Since land redistribution legislation was introduced, 1913 has always been the starting point.
But the Western Cape ANC, under provincial leader Marius Fransman, now wants this set aside, to enable Khoi and San descendants to claim for the Cape land they were dispossessed of after the arrival of the Dutch under Jan van Riebeeck in 1652.
The Western Cape ANC wants parcels of land identified in recent land audits by the Western Cape provincial government and the City of Cape Town set aside for land restitution for Khoi and San descendants.
And the party in the province also wants national government land, such as land held by the military.
“Colonisation and land dispossession started long before 1913… it began with the genocide of the Khoi and San people,” Fransman said.
The basis for his call has been widely debated since 1994 and it is common cause that the “First People” of the Cape were either dispossessed of their land by force, or “rented” in crude trade agreements, essentially making them tenants on what had been their own land.
Despite this, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights has two central “cut-off dates” – the starting date for land claims, June 19, 1913, when the Natives Land Act was passed, and December 31, 1998, by which date land claims had to be submitted. This ignores the potential for redress for ancestors of landowners prior to 1913.
Cape Argus