Khoi groups in court over land invasions

THE occupation of land in Grabouw by Khoisan will continue, despite efforts from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to obtain an interdict.

“Rise Khoisan, rise” was chanted by supporters of the paramount chief of the Chainouqua clan, Richard Isaacs, outside the Cape Town High Court yesterday.

Isaacs said: “We are busy reclaiming. The land belonged previously to our families that belonged to the Khoi, and the government took all of that land, and now we are busy taking it back, and that is why we are here. We believe that we will win this and that the land will be returned to its rightful people, who are the first nations, the Khoi, which the Chainouqua tribe is a part of.”

Councillor for the Cochoqua Khoisan tribe Miles Jacobs said treaties such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples were being used to assert the sovereignty of the Khoisan people over these territories. “We will continue to fill documents and we will continue the settlement of the people. It is their right to settle; there is no impediment now to settle. The case is postponed again; the interdict is not enforced. It’s about 67 properties, but we will eventually assert jurisdiction over all the state’s assets, I think the land is about a million hectares in this area,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs said the kraal where the last Hottentot chief of Tulbagh was buried was repossessed on June 30 last year, followed by farming in the area.

“Then we informed chief Isaacs that he has got 153 000 hectares of state land in the area, Chainouqua, which is the Overberg. He then took Knoflokskraal, and then there are also some people in Plettenberg Bay who took Kraansbos.

“The government made an interdict to try and stop us from taking more land. We are opposing the interdict, saying we do have the right to take the land.”

Representing Isaacs, attorney Tim Dunn said the matter for the interdict had been postponed to August 4.