Khoisan want all land handed back

South Africans of Khoisan heritage want a ceremonial handover of all land in the country to their community before the government moves forward with land expropriation without compensation, says a Times Select report. ‘Why is everyone else talking about the land and everyone is silent about the first nation people? When everybody came here, they found our forefathers here,’ said Anthony Williams from the Indigenous First Nation Advocacy SA. They believe their legacy as the indigenous people of SA has been ignored in the national debate about land reform. Williams said more needed to be done to recognise the Khoisan as the original inhabitants of SA. ‘What’s missing in the national discourse as far as land is concerned, is a very strange phenomenon that the narrative of the Khoi and the San people has notoriously been left out. We are trying to understand why,’ he said. ‘It is strange that the majority of the indigenous Africans are leaving the first nation people out of the discussion. We were the very first people to put our lives on the line, and there is a very curious silence around why we were left out, even from Codesa.’ Williams said the government must ‘come to the table’ before the Constitution was amended to allow for land expropriation without compensation. ‘The entire SA needs to be handed over in a ceremony to the Khoi and the San people. That means international recognition, giving credence that they were the first,’ he said. ‘Then a justified settlement is needed. Then we can talk about how do we now share the land.’

Full Times Select report