Dear Professor Nwaila and Advocate Ntsewa OPEN LETTER TO COGTA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA We have always try to be open, honest and frank with you whenever we feel the need to communicate with your Department. This time around it will not be otherwise. We urge our Government to take account of the differences between indigenous First Nation Peoples, both from the mainstream South African life and the cultural and historical differences between indigenous First nation communities.The divisive context of disputes over our history and culture, Government’s policy since ratifying the UNDRIPS for us as indigenous First Nation Peoples descendants come down to exclusion from participating in the mainstream of South African life. Government must take the differences between indigenous First Nation Peoples communities into account whenever they respond with policy. We urge Government to stop looking for short-term fixes to complex issues such as the recognisance, restoration and reconciliation of us indigenous First Nation Peoples descendants. We urge Government to seriously take into consideration the very complicated fact of Indigenous difference. Government must stop to simplify matters just for closing the gap and again push as into assimilation. The recognition of this difference need not cause policy paralysis or be an excuse for inaction on indigenous First Nation Peoples disadvantage. By taking the aforementioned indigenous differences into account, it offers Government the opportunity for making strong, consistent gains which will lead to incremental, long-term benefits. Our vision of such a long-term approach is that Government in collaboration with the philanthropicand broader non-government sector work effectively in partnership with indigenous First Nation communities and organisations to obtain these long-term benefits. The cultural authority of our respected elders whether formalised or not is of paramount importance to us in any indigenous First Nation Peoples empowerment or mobilisation. In our view the Bill proposed by Government fall short by a long shot. We have overcome betrayal by our African brothers and sisters, colonialism, imperialism, apartheid and nowadays constitutional exclusion and forced assimilation imposed upon us by our government. Government’s denial of us being the indigenous First Nation Peoples of this Southern tip of Africa, its negligence in helping us decolonise and overcome centuries of Historic Trauma will not dampen the spirit of liberation amongst us the descendants of the !Kung and Quena. COMMENT ON THE TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS BILL, 2013: ACTIVIST FOR THE LIBERATION OF RSA’S INDIGENOUS FIRST NATION PEOPLES We the activists for the liberation of RSA’s indigenous First Nation Peoples find the Bill to be against the restorative spirit, aims and objectives of RSA’s Constitution: The pre-amble to the Bill is assimilative and lumps us indigenous First Nation Peoples with the Peoples of Bantu descent. Article 8 of the UNDRIPS as well as other international indigene legislation is clear about assimilation. The pre-amble aspire for the recognition of traditional and indigenous First Nation Peoples communities. This is problematic for us. Traditional communities are being Constitionally accommodated since 2003. Indigenous First Nation Peoples recognition must be handled separately. Indigenous First Nation Peoples are the original owners and custodians of country, because they inhabited the land long before Nguni migration and European settlement. We object to this half-hearted effort because Government has an obligation towards indigenous First Nation Peoples in terms of the international Conventions, Covenants, Declarations and treaties which they subscribe to. Government’s ignorance of the international Conventions, Covenants, Declarations and treaties will cause us indigenous First Nation Peoples to seek legal recourse to protect our universal human rights and fundamental freedoms. We urge Government to respect our freedom of choice as well as our freedom of association as embodied within the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Indigenous First Nation Peoples have paid dearly for these basic rights and we will not give up these rights. The Bill is silence about restitution, resources, and our basic rights that was violated by successive governments. With recognition comes reconciliation. It is unacceptable that Government choose to avoid these issues in the Bill. Indigenous First Nation Peoples band governance, land tenure systems and cultural practices were illegalised and destroyed by Colonial, Imperial and Apartheid legislation. Our political structures and political cultures have for generations been distorted by the imposition of Colonial, Imperial and Apartheid government systems. The Bill effectively ignores this Colonial, Imperialistic and Apartheid destruction of indigenous First Nation Peoples band governance, land tenure systems and cultural practices. We refuse to be disadvantage by Government. We have been disadvantage by previous Governments. Government must fulfil their Constitutional obligation towards indigenous First Nation Peoples of the Republic of South Africa. The Bill purposefully ignore the aims and objectives of Colonialism, Imperialism and Apartheid which was the total destruction of indigenous First Nation Peoples band governance, land tenure systems and cultural practices. The destruction of us the indigenous First Nation Peoples is well documented and the induced dependency, cultural loss, dispiritedness of Indigenous First Nation Peoples descendants is evidential of this. Chapter 2 of the Bill further ignores the destruction that the legislation that created the Missionaries, the Cape, Orange River, Natal, Transvaal and Free State Colonies and the homelands had on us. A selected minority of indigenous First Nation Peoples descendants have a proven history of existence. For us the remnants of RSA’s indigenous First Nation this clause is draconic and it appeared to us that this Bill is the completion of the unfinished policies Government inherited from its colonial, imperialistic and apartheid predecessors. We will challenge this draconic clause and appeal to Government to withdraw it with immediate effect. The section on the Recognition of indigenous First Nation Peoples community and Branch is discriminative and insensitive giving the total destruction of our band governance, land tenure systems and cultural practices by the Colonisers, Imperialisers and Apartheid regime. Indigenous First Nation Peoples can be restored at anytime if given the opportunity: The restoration of the Khomani is a point in case. Government’s ignorance of the destruction of our band governance systems, our land tenure systems and our cultural practices by the Colonial, Imperial and Apartheid regime will be challenged by us in the world international court. If indigenous First Nation Peoples need to apply at their provincial Premier for recognition and acknowledgement, where do traditional leaders and Europeans apply to for recognition and acknowledgement? We urge Government to come to their senses. We do not need draconic legislation as this Bill is evidential of. In the past we found many ways to resist ignore and overcome the successive governments that impose draconic legislature on us. Our history is evidential that Government-created band chiefs and councils often lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the people, and that we continue to respect and follow the directions set by hereditary leaders and political systems, even when all of the official authority and government funding flowed through the band councils created and managed under government legislature. The oppressive and unrelenting systems that denied both control over our lives and the opportunity to participate in broader South African society, never succeed to disassociate us from our indigenous First Nation beingness. We the indigenous First Nation Peoples see this Bill as an extreme act of assimilation, challenging the very roots of our Indigenous First Nation identity and social organisation. The Bill is not a good piece of legislation. It is discriminative from start to finish. Unless Government make haste to change the Bill we will use it as a level of embarrassment to Government in our hands. Our sacred rights as indigenous First Nation Peoples descendants are very precious to us. Anytime our Government wants to honour its obligations to us we are more than ready to help devise new indigenous First Nation legislature. We call on Government not to create indigenous leaders who gain their authority and prestige from a piece of legislation opposite of indigenous First Nation Peoples cultural values. The fundamental problem is that Government persist to discriminate against us by classifying us under Act 30 of 1950 although it is scrapped by the apartheid regime in 1991. In the name of civilizing indigenous First Nation Peoples and preparing them for assimilation into South African society, it created a paternalistic regime in which indigenous First Nation Peoples were not self-governing citizens but objects of administration. Government’s persistence in classifying us in terms of this scrapped legislation will be challenged by us. Government must realise that a single national system for indigenous First Nation Peoples will not work. We encourage Government to cater for Group specific needs providing us with greater flexibility in considering the best means of governing in our communities. Colonial and other oppressive governmental systems rule over us for centuries. Our oral stories tell us that we have been here since the beginning of time. Those oppressive systems did a lot of damage. The demand of our people, especially our hereditary chiefs, matriarchs and respected elders, was that we achieve recognition of the land question in a just and honourable way. To us that mean on our own terms and conditions, not by being prescribe by government. We desire greater participation, we urge Government to transform the welfare-based economies of indigenous First Nation Peoples descendants- our identity as distinct communities remain of fundamental importance to us. Lastly we call on Government to stop frustrating us and start an honest negotiating process with us RSA’s indigenous First Nation Peoples. Unless Government come to their senses we will seek legal recourse in seeking redress for our longstanding grievances, to secure in the process important recognition for a wide array of land, resource and political rights. ACTIVISTS FOR THE LIBERATION OF RSA’S INDIGENOUS FIRST NATION PEOPLES VISION OF LEGISLATION THAT CAN LEAD TO INDIGENOUS FIRST NATION PEOPLES SOCIAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL INCLUSION PREAMBLE We the indigenous First Nation Peoples seeks government to adopt legislation to enable indigenous First Nation Peoples to increase our economic status, promote our social well-being and improve the provision of community services; Furthermore we seek government to protect the rights of indigenous First Nation Peoples, by recognising international standards for the protection of our universal human rights and fundamental freedoms through: (a) The ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and other standard-setting instruments such as the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on Civil and Political Rights; and (b) The acceptance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; (c) The ratification of ILO Convention169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989; and (d) The implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples i. We seek to lobby Government and persuade the people of South Africa to vote overwhelmingly to amend the Constitution so that Parliament of South Africa would be able to make special laws for the indigenous First Nation Peoples; ii. The people whose descendants are known as indigenous First Nation Peoples were the inhabitants of Southern Africa before European settlement and Nguni migration; iii. That we have been progressively dispossessed of our lands and that this dispossession occurred largely without compensation, and successive governments have failed to reach a lasting and equitable agreement with indigenous First Nation Peoples concerning the use of our lands; iv. We further seek to lobby government to make provision for rectification of past injustices and to ensure that indigenous First Nation Peoples receive full recognition within the South African nation to which history, our prior rights and interests, and our rich and diverse culture, fully entitle us to aspire; v. It is our wish that there be reached with us indigenous First Nation Peoples of South Africa a real and lasting reconciliation of these matters; vi. It is a firm objective of Indigenous First Nation Peoples that policies be developed and maintained by the South African Government that will overcome disadvantages of indigenous First Nation Peoples to facilitate the enjoyment of our culture; vii. We deemed it also appropriate to further the aforementioned objective in a manner that is consistent with the aims of self-management and self-sufficiency for indigenous First Nation Peoples; viii. We also deemed it appropriate to establish structures to represent indigenous First Nation Peoples to ensure maximum participation of indigenous First Nation Peoples in the formulation and implementation of programs and to provide us with an effective voice within the South African society. OUR OBJECTIVES In recognition of the past dispossession and dispersal of indigenous First Nation Peoples and our present disadvantaged position in South African society our objectives are as follow: a) To ensure maximum participation of indigenous First Nation persons in the formulation and implementation of government policies that affect us; b) To promote the development of self-management and self- sufficiency amongst indigenous First Nation Peoples; c) To further the economic, social and cultural development of indigenous First Nation Peoples; and; d) To establish and maintain a Public Fund (the Indigenous People Education Research Fund) e) To ensure co-ordination in the formulation and implementation of policies affecting indigenous First Nation Peoples by National, Provincial, and local governments, without detracting from the responsibilities of National, Provincial, and local governments to provide services to their indigenous First Nation Peoples residents. We the indigenous First Nation Peoples believe in order to reach the aforementioned it is imperative for Government to implement an act to establish an indigenous First Nation Peoples National and Regional authority, an Indigenous Land Corporation and an Indigenous Business Corporation. Activists for the Liberation of RSA’s Indigenous First Nation Peoples: Jacob Diedericks, Billy Steenkamp, !’Ikuisi Piet Barendse, Niel Edwin Dikwex Carelse, Klinton Whitehead, Lana Cavernelis, Gerald Fouche, Ulrich Steenkamp
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 11:08:46 +0000
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