The proposal in the draft Traditional and Khoisan Leadership Bill to only allow families that have lost their traditional leadership status after 1 September 1927 to reclaim their status, is going to disadvantage many eligible leaders who were stripped off of their status long before that date, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs heard today.
A representative of Vatsonga-Machangana Traditional Communities, Mr Ernest Khosa, told the Portfolio Committee during public hearings on the Bill in Mbombela that some kings were stripped off of their status earlier than the 1927 cut-off date, in the 1600s to be exact, and advised Members of Parliament (MPs) to consider reviewing the cut-off date.
“Other than the good job that you are doing for the Khoisan in the Bill, there are other citizens that were excluded from kingship by certain technical aspects of colonialism, some of the events that affected traditional leadership go beyond the borders and we did not participate in the drawing of the borders,” said Mr Khosa.
He added that the September 1927 deadline will alienate a sizeable number of people and could create the impression that some people are not South African enough. Mr Khosa, however, accepted the Bill, saying it will bring social cohesion.
Mr Collen Mnisi said the recognition of the Khoisan was long overdue: ”It was unfair to leave the Khoisan out of the country’s system of traditional leadership while the Constitution recognises them and they have been crying for a very long time for their traditional leaders to participate in the system.”
Some traditional leaders lost their status when they were driven by wars from Mozambique – and Mr Mnisi wanted to know if they can lodge claims to be traditional leaders on this side of the border.
“They were traditional leaders back in Mozambique, they have lost their status through wars, what happens to those people?” asked Mr Mnisi.
Ms Bessie Viljoen warned against identifying all coloured people as Khoisan, saying some like herself were products of whites and blacks. “Some of us are products of blacks and whites. I’m really not a Khoisan, what are you going to do with us because we do not have chiefs or kings? They must not look down on us. I am not a Khoisan, I am coloured, we know we are coloured and we didn’t bring ourselves here, if God didn’t want my granny to conceive from a white man, I shouldn’t be here,” she said.
The Chairperson of the Lowveld Khoisan Council, Mr David Petersen, said: “We cannot talk of nation-building when a key component of the society is excluded, we oppose this Bill. We believe the exclusion is unforgivable – we are the first indigenous people of this country – we believe unless the First Nation issue is comprehensively dealt with, there can’t be any social cohesion.”
Mr Solomon Mabuza said the role of traditional leaders was not clearly defined in the Constitution and any other laws, and as a result many traditional leaders were still using the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951.
“The law says traditional leaders are custodians and not owners of the land, the problem we have is that traditional leaders say the land belongs to them and can sell it to anyone. The fact is, communal land belongs to the community,” Mr Mabuza told the Committee.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Mr Richard Mdakane, said it was true that some traditional leaders were not born but put in place by the apartheid government, to divide the natives.
“We agree that some chieftaincies were created by the old government but the institution of traditional leadership was not created, yes other leaders were imposed by apartheid and others were removed.
“That is why we have the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims which traces the origins of chieftaincy or kingship and restore those to the rightful people.
On the issue of status that was lost as a result of the drawing of borders and fleeing from wars, Mr Mdakane said the African Union (AU) took a resolution not to temper with the existing borders as that will create chaos.
“We know that the borders have divided communities, some kings are on the other side of the border with their people in another country – but we respect the borders but we cannot have two kings on both sides of the border for the same nation,” said the Chairperson.
By Sakhile Mkoena
30 March 2017
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