228 Leslé Jansen and Rayna Sutherland
Following independent research into Khoikhoi and San communities and
membership in 1999 and an election of further leadership in 2012, 30 members
of the NKSC now represent the historical Khoikhoi and San groups across South
Africa: the San, Griqua, Nama, Cape Khoi and Koranna (ibid.).
Finally, just as the Khoikhoi and San were so long unrecognised as Indigenous
peoples and excluded from post-apartheid development agendas, they were also
excluded from land reform processes, mainly, land restitution. Given the vast
inequity of contemporary land holdings along racial lines in South Africa, as a
legacy to apartheid policies, land reform is a critical three-pronged process to
redress systematic land dispossession and restore equity, justice and dignity. In
2018, the South African Parliament endorsed a report proposing an amendment
to Section 25 of the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation for the sake of accelerating a critical, yet acutely delayed land reform process. Thereafter, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, appointed an
Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture to analyse and give input
on this process. However, questions remain on the inclusion of the K hoikhoi
Indigenous representation on this panel. Despite the importance of this report, its
output recommendations offered little and unclear considerations to meaningful
inclusion and accommodation of the Khoikhoi’s needs in the advised implementation planning. This oversight in recommendation is likely tied to the associated
critique that the report’s analysis did not sufficiently represent the specific land
concerns of the Khoikhoi.
One central land concern for the Khoikhoi is their unique positioning in
land restitution policies. As the first peoples of Southern Africa, along with
the San, the Khoikhoi have stewarded and remained connected to these lands
since time immemorial but lost the vast majority of their lands during the
colonial era. Therefore, they hold land claims dating back to 1652. However,
Land Restitution Act 22 of 1994 only permits claims for land lost due to racially
discriminatory apartheid legislation post-1913. Therefore, this restricts the
Khoikhoi’s land claims, despite the evidenced importance of land to their identity, culture and livelihood as traditionally land-based Indigenous peoples. The
Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture (2019) affirmed this injustice
in that the Act “will not and has not delivered substantive justice for those persons that lost land long before 19 June 1913” (ibid., p. 27). In response to the
Advisory Panel’s report, Prof. Stanley Peterson, a member of the NKSC and
Rooibos ABS Negotiations Team, stated that communities are left with questions and without assurance as to whether and how justice will be facilitated
for the Khoikhoi following the report, which was intended to offer clarity in
this regard ( Jansen, 2021). In this way, once again, the Khoikhoi continue to
be disregarded and left behind in the name of post-modern development initiatives. These processes intended to redress land dispossession and historical
violence for collective dignity and rebuilding, and continue to insufficiently
include equity considerations of the Khoikhoi and their due needs and rights
of restorative justice.
Following independent research into Khoikhoi and San communities and
membership in 1999 and an election of further leadership in 2012, 30 members
of the NKSC now represent the historical Khoikhoi and San groups across South
Africa: the San, Griqua, Nama, Cape Khoi and Koranna (ibid.).
Finally, just as the Khoikhoi and San were so long unrecognised as Indigenous
peoples and excluded from post-apartheid development agendas, they were also
excluded from land reform processes, mainly, land restitution. Given the vast
inequity of contemporary land holdings along racial lines in South Africa, as a
legacy to apartheid policies, land reform is a critical three-pronged process to
redress systematic land dispossession and restore equity, justice and dignity. In
2018, the South African Parliament endorsed a report proposing an amendment
to Section 25 of the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation for the sake of accelerating a critical, yet acutely delayed land reform process. Thereafter, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, appointed an
Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture to analyse and give input
on this process. However, questions remain on the inclusion of the K hoikhoi
Indigenous representation on this panel. Despite the importance of this report, its
output recommendations offered little and unclear considerations to meaningful
inclusion and accommodation of the Khoikhoi’s needs in the advised implementation planning. This oversight in recommendation is likely tied to the associated
critique that the report’s analysis did not sufficiently represent the specific land
concerns of the Khoikhoi.
One central land concern for the Khoikhoi is their unique positioning in
land restitution policies. As the first peoples of Southern Africa, along with
the San, the Khoikhoi have stewarded and remained connected to these lands
since time immemorial but lost the vast majority of their lands during the
colonial era. Therefore, they hold land claims dating back to 1652. However,
Land Restitution Act 22 of 1994 only permits claims for land lost due to racially
discriminatory apartheid legislation post-1913. Therefore, this restricts the
Khoikhoi’s land claims, despite the evidenced importance of land to their identity, culture and livelihood as traditionally land-based Indigenous peoples. The
Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture (2019) affirmed this injustice
in that the Act “will not and has not delivered substantive justice for those persons that lost land long before 19 June 1913” (ibid., p. 27). In response to the
Advisory Panel’s report, Prof. Stanley Peterson, a member of the NKSC and
Rooibos ABS Negotiations Team, stated that communities are left with questions and without assurance as to whether and how justice will be facilitated
for the Khoikhoi following the report, which was intended to offer clarity in
this regard ( Jansen, 2021). In this way, once again, the Khoikhoi continue to
be disregarded and left behind in the name of post-modern development initiatives. These processes intended to redress land dispossession and historical
violence for collective dignity and rebuilding, and continue to insufficiently
include equity considerations of the Khoikhoi and their due needs and rights
of restorative justice.