Inyanda movement bitterly opposed to apartheid-like Traditional Khoi-San Leadership Bill

THE Inyanda National Land Movement denounces the signing into law of the Traditional Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB), which in effect reimposes apartheid Bantustan realities on to millions of people.

Inyanda, along with numerous other civil society movements, have for years been calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government not to approve the bill, but the voice of civil society has clearly fallen on deaf ears.

The TKLB is a dangerous law that goes against the democratic spirit, letter and intent of our country’s Constitution.

It effectively imposes a separate governance system, and along with the Traditional Courts Bill, a dual justice system on millions of mainly black rural dwellers residing in the former homeland regions. It also gives credibility to a system of KhoiSan traditional authorities, many of whom were co-opted and worked with the apartheid government.

The law confirms and extends the powers of traditional authorities such as kings, queens, chiefs and headmen. These traditional authorities will now have governmental, law-making, judicial, custom-making and land administration powers all at the same time.

The people who will suffer the most are women.

Earlier this year, at an event organised in the Eastern Cape, activists from Inyanda and the Rural Women’s Assembly heard testimonies from women in various locations about the oppression and injustices they were experiencing under traditional rule.

A family in Elliotdale had to wait two months to bury their relative because the deceased woman was not a follower of the local chief and he refused to urgently issue the required confirmation-of-death letter for her body to be released from the mortuary.

In Quzini, a women’s co-operative was denied land for an agricultural project by the local chief because there were no men involved.

Numerous reports abound of widows losing land and houses simply through the power of traditional authorities to rob women of land in rural areas.

It is virtually impossible for single and unmarried women to gain access to land in traditionally governed areas.

Among the most disturbing provisions of the TKLB is the power it extends to traditional authorities and traditional councils to sign away land, and enter into deals with third parties such as mining companies and agri-corporations, irrespective of the views of the local community.

The system of traditional rule that is now confirmed and protected by the TKLB is undemocratic and reinforces patriarchy. More power to traditional authorities is equal to more suffering for rural women.

Inyanda condemns the signing of the TKLB into law and opposes it. | INYANDA NATIONAL LAND MOVEMENT