King Khoisan SA out on warning

King Khoisan SA was yesterday released on warning for further investigation on dagga charges a day after being dragged out of the Union Buildings premises during a police operation.

On Wednesday, members of the Khoisan and cannabis communities protested outside the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court in support of King Khoisan, where he made his first appearance.

King Khoisan and three others were arrested on Wednesday after a police operation swept through the Union Buildings grounds and confiscated dagga plants and arrested him.

He said he was a chief in the early 2000s but was only sworn in as the king in 2019. He said he was the king of the “Khoisan”, the umbrella title to the five Khoi San nations and included the Nama, Korana, Griqua, Khoe and San. He said they were mobilising themselves and focused on creating awareness for the “Khoisan”.

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But culture and history analyst Patric Tariq Mellet said there has never been and still was no such people called, or who called themselves, “Khoisan”.

He said the term was coined by German zoologist and self-styled ethnographer Leonhard Schultz during the German genocide against the San, Nama, Damara and Khoe peoples in Namibia in the 20th century. “I believe that
those camping in Pretoria are sincere, but sincerely wrong in their approach, which borders on fakery,” he said.

King Khoisan and his co-accused were ordered to return to court on 29 March. He said the arrests were unnecessary.

“If the police had done their work properly, they could have just removed the excess plants, instead of humiliating the first nation and trying to divert our situation from being heard by the president.”