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South-African
spin-doctors at work
COMMENT:
The South-African
spin-doctors are at work again here.
In the real Khoisan-speaking people there is not only hope, there
is growing anger against those double-gamers and also a clear
vision: WE SHALL OVERCOME !
Certainly some of their people have fallen off the track, BUT:
JUST LEAVE US IN PEACE ! is now (slowly) amended with "... OR
ELSE"!
Maybe the most gentle people in this world find their final
survival only in counter-aggression. Guilt would have not to be
sought in them, but in US!
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The
San a "Community Fast Losing Hope"
Moyiga
Nduru
RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA:
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 4 (IPS) - The plight of an
indigenous community in South Africa, the San, was placed in the
spotlight this week with the launch of a report by the South
African Human Rights Commission.
Entitled ‘Report on the Inquiry Into Human Rights Violations in
the Khomani San Community in South Africa’, the 35-page document
details what commission chairman Jody Kollapen said was "a
sad story of neglect and of indifference".
"What we found was a community fast losing hope, which often
lacked the means and the ability to function and survive in a
world so very different from that to which it is accustomed,"
he noted. Kollapen was speaking at the launch of the report, which
took place Thursday in South Africa’s commercial hub,
Johannesburg.
The San, also referred to as Bushmen, are hunter-gatherers who
have traditionally inhabited the Kalahari desert – an expanse
straddling South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. (‘Khomani’ is
the name given to the main San group in the southern Kalahari.)
According to the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities of
Southern Africa, there are currently about 100,000 San – the
majority of whom live in Botswana (49,000). Namibia has a
population of 38,000, and South Africa 4,500. About 6,000 San are
also found in Angola, 1,600 in Zambia and 1,200 in Zimbabwe.
Under apartheid in the 1970s, members of the community in South
Africa were dispossessed of their traditional lands and dispersed
throughout the country. This effectively turned them into an
underclass, plagued with drug and alcohol abuse that affects
adults and children alike.
The local liquor store in the Askham-Andriesvale area of the
Kalahari, where many members of the Khomani live, runs a thriving
trade selling ‘killing me softly’ – the name given by the
San to a favourite alcoholic drink. Marijuana use has also been
reported.
"They drink a lot of alcohol – some of them start drinking
at an early age of 14 years. And sometimes when the male relatives
return home drunk at night, they go into the girls’ thatched
huts and abuse them," Eliot Ndlovu, an activist in the
community, told IPS.
"We tell the girls to go and report to the community leaders,"
he added. Ndlovu works for Rainbow Mantis, a non-governmental
organisation which assists the Khomani.
Proper employment is scarce, with most community members making
ends meet through craft sales to tourists.
"They have no formal jobs. They sit on the main road to
Namibia and tourists give them money," Ndlovu said.
"With the money they buy food, but use most of it on alcohol."
In addition, "The Khomani San have no access to water and
housing...Yet these are the things that we take for granted in
terms of development," Mongezi Guma of the Commission for the
Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and
Linguistic Communities told journalists Thursday.
Concerns about threats facing the San were brought to the fore
early last year with the killing of Optel Rooi, a well known
tracker.
On Jan. 3, Rooi and an associate, Silikat van Wyk, stopped at a
bar in the Askham-Andriesvale area, apparently to fetch water
which they planned to carry home. Two police officers who claim to
have been responding to a reported housebreaking then arrived on
the premises, prompting Rooi and Van Wyk to flee. A shooting
ensued in which Rooi was killed.
The uncertainty surrounding the exact details of the incident, and
dissatisfaction with the way in which the matter was investigated
have damaged relations between the San and the police.
"We found the community and the police deeply divided. The
community simply didn’t trust the police," Kollapen said.
As a result of the community’s complaints, a three-day inquiry
was eventually held about Rooi’s death – and the officer who
shot him is now facing trial.
The incident also highlighted broader tensions between the San and
police, which relate to the involvement of officers in farming and
hunting.
In 1999 the Khomani San achieved a historic victory when tracts of
land in the Kalahari were returned to them under South Africa’s
land reform programme, which seeks to rectify racial disparities
in land ownership that date back to the apartheid past.
But some of this land, notably that which formed part of a holding
called Witdraai, has previously been farmed by local police, says
the commission’s report. It also claims that police have
continued "to undertake commercial ventures on Khomani San
land...(contributing) to a distorted relationship between the
community and the police."
"We feel that the police should only be involved in policing
– not farming and hunting," observed Kollapen, adding that
he hoped to see the appointment of managers who could help the San
engage in agricultural activities on their land.
In a bid to equip the Khomani with the skills they need to survive
in a modern world, efforts are underway to educate children from
the community – so that members of the San can become aware of
their rights.
"So far, the government has repealed 800 discriminatory laws
since 1994. Still, it’s difficult to instill the culture of
one’s rights into people," Zonke Majodina, deputy
chairperson of the human rights commission, told IPS. "People’s
equality must be promoted and protected." (South Africa’s
apartheid system of racial segregation was brought to an end in
1994, when the country’s first-ever multi-racial elections were
held.)
But, as Thursday’s report by the human rights commission notes,
San children experience difficulty functioning in a confined
school environment, as they are used to moving about more freely.
As a result, "They are lured from school by the money they
can make and entertaining tourists at stalls selling traditional
Khomani San artifacts," says the document.
In July last year a local official took action on this matter, and
brought some of the children back to school. "However, there
is concern that these children will return to a lifestyle where
they can make up to R200 (200 rand, about 34 dollars) a day by
entertaining tourists," says the report.
These fears are well-founded. An inquiry by the Department of
Education found that a month after being returned to school by the
local official, three of the five children concerned were absent
from lessons.
Matters are not helped by the fact that facilities to educate San
children are less than satisfactory. "Schooling is still
rudimentary," says Guma.
"The plight of the Khomani San raises the question on how
many others live in such a situation in the country. We have to
look out for such abuses and address them," he noted further.
However, it is not only within South Africa’s borders that the
situation of the San is raising concern.
In neighbouring Botswana, the Basarwa – as the San are known
locally – have allegedly been coerced from their traditional
lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to allow authorities to
exploit diamond reserves in this region.
Government denies the accusation, claiming that any relocation of
the San has been done because the community’s activities are
threatening wildlife conservation, and because it wants to improve
the Basarwa’s quality of life. (END/2005)
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27732
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see also: http://www.khoisanpeoples.org
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