Pretoria - Extreme heat, rain and wind may have battered the tents and soaked the blankets of the Khoisan people camping outside the Union Buildings, but their spirit remained solid as their wait to hear from President Cyril Ramaphosa about their rightful place in South Africa entered its 33rd day yesterday.
Leading them was Chief Khoisan SA, who said Ramaphosa had received the group’s memorandum when he was still deputy president in 2017 when he promised to respond to their issues, but they had not heard from him since.
The chief said the indigenous group of people had braved the intense festive season’s heatwave and survived recent rains, just so they could talk to Ramaphosa face to face.
“We are blessed that our story has reached the hearts of many caring people in South African communities, and many have travelled from their homes to comfort us and give us donations. We believe that we are here for the right cause we will not leave until our demands are heard.
“As of January 1, we proclaimed that we will govern ourselves, but we will still engage with this government on issues that pertain to land and issues pertaining to the country’s wealth - such as mineral resources.
“We made it clear to government last year, and even in 2017, that the government needs to recognise us as the first nation and give us the rights of the first nation.”
Chief Khoisan SA said the group would campaign internationally at the UN so that the South African government could be sanctioned if it continued failing to recognise them.
He said government’s efforts to recognise the Khoisan people had been ineffective, including the Khoisan and Traditional Leaders Bill.
“They are constantly saying this bill is in Parliament and it will give the Khoisan recognition, but that bill is just incorporating us into the house of traditional leaders. It is not saying that the Khoi and San people are the first nation, and it is also telling us that chief leaders would be given five years and then ministers and premiers will decide if other chiefs should be elected.
“We are saying that it can never be right for the chiefs to be dictated to by government in the history of African communities.”
The spokesperson in the presidency, Khusela Diko, said the office of the president was engaging with the Khoisan, despite having already advised them to raise their demands at appropriate forums facilitated by Parliament to influence policy, but yesterday they said they would not budge, as those forums did not address the issues they had.