Khoi and San leaders say the fact that they were not invited to form part of the National Convention starting on Friday shows that they are still not recognised by the South African government.
The two-day Convention at the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) main campus in Pretoria is meant to kick-start the National Dialogue process.
The process leading up to the gathering has been marred by controversies that include the hefty price tag of the dialogue and the withdrawal of legacy foundations.
Community leaders say Khoi and San communities continue to be marginalised by government and are always an afterthought.
The leaders say a National Dialogue without them is a farce and they are furious at their exclusion from the National Convention.
National Khoisan Council member Stanley Pietersen says, “What about the Khoi and San people of South Africa? We are nowhere. We are once again being left out, like in Codesa (Convention for a Democratic South Africa), we were not being invited, we are nowhere.”
Pietersen adds, “We urge our South African government to include us in things that affect us because everybody is making rules, even the white paper on local government. We are saying as Khoi San, nothing for us, without us.”
Griqua leader Barend van Wyk says, “We cannot deal with national questions, but then we are not part and parcel of a national question. We are here, we didn’t ask to be here, they found us here because we are indeed indigenous and we are the descendants of the first indigenous people of South Africa.”
Khoi and San community picketing outside UNISA
Land and culture
Van Wyk says their communities have a lot to contribute to the conversation, such as land, recognition and the development of their people and cultures.
He says, “We need to speak about land, we need to speak about constitutional accommodation, we need to speak about constitutional recognition, we need to speak a lot about a lot of economic, social welfare economic and social empowerment of our communities, and we need to speak about all these things but if we should’ve been there. We could speak about the way in manner the South African government treats us and wants to keep us out.”
The leaders add that they still hope to join in to add their views as the process unfolds.
