UPDATE: Khoisan rejects proposed Traditional and Khoisan Leadership Bill
This follows a protest by the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD) a few weeks ago.
The Khoisan have rejected the proposed Traditional and Khoisan Leadership Bill (TKLB) once more.
This follows a protest by the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD) a few weeks ago.
The protesters called on President Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign the Traditional and Khoisan Leadership and Traditional Courts bills calling them “Bantustan bills”.
ALSO READ: UPDATE: Still no audience with Ramaphosa four months later- Chief KhoisanSA
According to the alliance, if these two bills are passed into law, they would effectively bring back apartheid-era Bantustans.
King Khoisan this week told Rekord that the Khoisan rejected the TKLB for various reasons.
“First of all the bill does not recognise our people as the first nation to originate in South Africa, it also does not talk about land,” he said.
He said the fact that the bill does not give power to kings or chiefs is also not a good thing because that is against African leadership.
“When the bill was drafted, the government did not have in-depth talks with the Khoisan leaders and the community, the bill in its current [form] does not include the public participation submissions made throughout the country,” he said.
King Khoisan said the bill is not by the Khoisan community.
ALSO READ: UPDATE: Khoisan activists to continue camping at Union Buildings after Cape visit
“They also need to do away with calling us traditional leaders, we are not traditional leaders, we are indigenous leaders,” he said.
He maintains that the bill was only supported by those who are supporters of the African National Congress.
The King and other Khoisan activists have been camping near the Mandela statue at the Union Buildings since November last year.
The group, who walked up from Port Elizabeth in Eastern Cape, wants the government to recognise them as “the first nation of South Africa”, and for their, language Khoe-khoeaab to be made official.
ALSO READ: UPDATE: Khoisan activists to discuss way forward
They vow not to leave the Union Buildings until they have been addressed by Ramaphosa
Their other demand is that all land claims be scrapped because “we are the true owners of the land” and that coloured as a race identity be scrapped.
During the May general elections, chief Khoisan was crowned king by his nation.
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