UPDATE: ARD marches to Union Buildings to protest ‘Bantustan bills’
The alliance is protesting the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership and Traditional Courts bills.
The Alliance for Rural Democracy has planned a march for Wednesday to protest what it calls “Bantustan bills”.
The march to the Union Buildings with start at 7:00.
The alliance said if the two bills – traditional and Khoi-San leadership bill (TKLB) and traditional courts bill (TCB) – are passed into law, they would effectively bring back “apartheid Bantustans”.
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The alliance demanded that president Cyril Ramaphosa completely overhauls the bills or refuse to sign them into law.
“We will not sit back and watch the reversal of over 362 years of struggle and sacrifice by the masses of the South African majority black population, who fought long and hard to defeat colonialism and formal apartheid which sought to relegate them into permanent subjectivity and deny them dignity, self-determination and full personhood,” reads the alliance’s statement.
Alliance national co-ordinator Constance Mogale previously told Rekord that their gripe with the TKLB was that it allowed traditional leaders to make deals with mining companies without the consent of the communities whose land rights would be affected while the TCB would force people in rural areas waive their right to ventilate matters in the magistrate’s courts.
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The spokesperson for the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Musa Zondi said the TKLB dealt with the recognition of traditional and Khoi-San communities and leaders, and the establishment of certain structures such as houses of traditional and Khoi-San leaders.
“The bill does not deal with any matters relating to land, property rights or citizenship.
Zondi said the roles of recognised traditional and Khoi-San leaders was clearly advisory, facilitative, supportive, co-operative and participatory.
He said such leaders would therefore not have any of the “powers” the alliance was against.
The alliance members were expected to camp out at Moretele Park in Mamelodi on Tuesday evening ahead of the march.
WE HAVE A DATE WITH RURAL DEMOCRACY TOMORROW!
🕢 07h00 – 5 June 2019(Wednesday)
📍Moretele Park- Tshwane#stopthebantustanbills #stopthebills pic.twitter.com/kWCcNWJU9z— #LandtothePeople! (@StopTheBills) June 4, 2019
#StoptheBills #stopbantustanbills #defendruraldemocracy! ASIKIJI! ✊🏿 https://t.co/2jiqiDYThH
— #LandtothePeople! (@StopTheBills) June 4, 2019
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