Khoisan activists apply for name change
HAPPY to be back home and after spending Christmas Day with their families, the four Khoisan activists who camped outside the Union Buildings earlier this month met at the Home Affairs office in the Cleary Park Shopping Centre to add the term “Khoi” to their names.
The group received an audience with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa on Christmas Eve but, while happy about that, they said the hard work started now.
Three of the four men walked the 1 200km to Pretoria at the beginning of the month, while the fourth, MPL Christian Martin, flew in later.
One of the men, Chief Khoisan SA, said while meeting Ramaphosa had been surreal, it had also shown the type of person he was.
“We were actually in church when we received the news that the deputy president wanted to meet with us and when we arrived, people were cheering for us.
“[Ramaphosa] could have invited us up into the Union Buildings, but he came down and sat with us. To us that showed the character of a great leader. It was a magnificent feeling.
“Although we are happy to be back home and our families were overjoyed to have us back, we have a lot of work to get through now.
“Ramaphosa agreed to have discussions with us in the new year with regard to the four demands on the memorandum,” he said.
Chief Khoisan SA and his followers walked from Port Elizabeth to the Union Buildings, embarked on a hunger strike and waited days to hand over their memorandum of grievances.
The group wants the government to recognise Khoisan as the First Nation of South Africa‚ their language to be made official and the land claims of 1913 and the coloured identity to be scrapped.
They said while the government decided on a date to meet, their aim was to create awareness.
Martin said people needed to claim back their identity.
“We have made a decision to go all out to ensure that the Khoisan get the recognition they deserve,” he said.
“We want to encourage people to change their names as well because we are the first nation of this country.”
He said the Khoisan people had been excluded from economic benefits in the country.
Moghamad Blouw, 49, of Bethelsdorp, who applied to have “Khoi” added to his name yesterday, said: “The identity we have taken on is false and it links us back to colonialism,” he said.
“I am now adding Khoi to my name so that people can know where I come from,” he said.
The men added that they wanted to ensure that the Khoisan language be adopted into the schooling system from Grade 1.