UPDATE: Chief Khoisan SA rejects Traditional Khoisan and Leadership Amendment Bill
“The bill does not talk about coloured identity, although we are called Khoi Khoi or San. But still in government documents we are called coloureds.”
Chief Khoisan SA said on Friday that they did not accept the Traditional Khoisan and Leadership Amendment Bill, which was passed in the National Council of Provinces on Thursday 10 January as it did not recognise the Khoisan as the first nation of South Africa.
The chief is the leader of a group of men who have been camping at the Union Buildings next to the Nelson Mandela statue since 30 November demanding an audience with President Cyril Ramaphosa to receive answers to requests they laid out in a memorandum they submitted to the government last year.
Ramaphosa promised to respond to their grievances when he received the memorandum almost a year ago, but to date, he has not met with them.
ALSO READ: Khoisan4 to walk to Union Buildings on Friday
The Khoisan community said they wanted formal recognition of the Khoisan language and to have the Khoisan declared as the first people to originate in South Africa.
“The bill does not put the emphasis on land and we are saying as the first nation the land belongs to us,” he said.
“The bill also does not talk about the issues that we brought forward when we first came in 2017. The issue of first nation status, our language that we want to be official.”
They also object to being called coloured.
“We are not coloured, we are all South Africans,” said Chief Khoisan SA.
“The bill does not talk about coloured identity, although we are called Khoi Khoi or San. But still in government documents we are called coloureds.”
He said the bill needed to be scrapped.
ALSO READ: Khoisan hunger striker hospitalised in the east
“The traditional house has been engaging with the Khoisan Leaders for years now because they also want to be part to be of the traditional house but we are saying to them we are not traditional leaders we are indigenous leaders,” he said.
“The bill stipulates that there is a five-year period where the chiefs can then be chiefs so we are saying this is not politics. This is indigenous.”
They said they were not going anywhere even if it meant they had to stay at the Union Buildings for 1000 years until matters were resolved.
The group have been sleeping in tents and said the only challenge they were facing was the weather as their blankets had been damaged.
The chief said good Samaritans had been donating food and drinks to them.
ALSO READ: UPDATE: Khoisan members camp out at Union Buildings awaiting answers from Ramaphosa
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