The government has undertaken to help a floundering Khomani San community find its feet, three years after the transfer of large chunks of the Kalahari under the Restitution of Land Rights Act. Roger Friedman reports. Benny Gool took the photographs
A series of constitutional changes designed to protect the rights of elders and traditionalists will be put to a special general meeting of the Khomani San Communal Property Association (CPA) in the Kalahari next week.
The proposed changes, with the appointment of a state-funded manager to assist the CPA develop and complete its business plan, are the result of crisis talks in the Kalahari three weeks ago following three years of inertia.
CPAs are legal institutions created by an Act of Parliament to enable groups of land-reform beneficiaries to use their land equitably and sustainably. CPAs are not required to fulfil municipal functions, but have in some cases taken responsibility for the development of the communal land. In many instances CPA members are relatively uneducated, have no business-management capacity and are struggling to create better lives for the communities.
Six farms of about 36000ha were transferred to the San community by then-deputy president Thabo Mbeki on Human Rights Day, March 21 1999. The farms, some of which were stocked with game, cost the state about R8-million. But since the transfer most of the farm infrastructure has collapsed; the community has no motorised transport and virtually no livestock; most of their game has been sold or poached; remaining game is dying of thirst because water pumps are broken; leading community members are occupying farmhouses earmarked for community tourism initiatives; and the community is split between those wishing to practise San traditions and those choosing more Westernised lifestyles.
Jan Eksteen of the Department of Agriculture in Upington said the land was overgrazed and alien-infested when acquired by the San. Since then, however, 75% of the infrastructure on the land, such as fencing, kraals and water pumps, had “gone”.
“If they want to do one thing for these people then they need a caretaker. If they don’t get a caretaker, forget it. They must do capacity building before getting down to the nitty-gritty of farming. It’s actually a heart-breaking story,” Eksteen said.
At the heart of the matter have been problems with the CPA. The first Khomani San CPA misspent money. A government task team was established to help a new CPA to its feet. But the new CPA elected 18 months ago proved as dysfunctional as its predecessor, exacerbating the split in the community and overseeing the further deterioration of conditions on the ground.
Police hunting and/or game-capturing activities on San land have increased tension. When the CPA decided to sell game to raise money to replace misspent funds, police with state vehicles and a helicopter captured the game on their behalf.
“I don’t know what those police were doing or who gave them permission,” Khomani San traditional leader David Kruiper said. “When they don’t get their way then they hassle my people and want to come and search through my pockets. They say they want to see the tobacco I smoke.”
Now the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights is to ask the police to separate their policing/farming/hunting activities.
In addition to the farms, the community is still to take transfer of 25000ha inside the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Negotiations around the finalisation of the contract park agreements are virtually complete. The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights is due to make an announcement in this regard in April, chief land claims commissioner Wallace Mgoqi said.
Mgoqi said the appointment of a manager to help the San finalise their business plan was a pragmatic decision to ensure the community could use and benefit from their land.
“If we don’t follow this route we will leave behind a legacy of barren land.”
He attributed the Kalahari struggle to the “level of social organisation in the community”, saying the community was not to blame for its victimisation in the past. It would take time for it to become a “cohesive and coherent community that can fully take charge of their destiny”, Mgoqi said.
“Overall, the government has now spent R1,4-billion on the acquisition of land. Any wise investor doesn’t just leave their capital investment and turn their back. You make sure that the correct mechanisms are in place. It is no different in the government. We must ensure that the capital we’ve invested in the acquisition of land will pay dividends, at least for the community, over time,” he said.
So much has gone wrong so quickly, it’s easy to forget that in the beginning this was one of the Department of Land Affairs’ flagship land restitution cases. It was not only about the transfer of land but also about the rebirth of a community most thought would never again see the light of day.
Speakers of old languages thought to be extinct were discovered in Upington ghettoes and reconnected to their people and their land. There was excited talk of schools to protect the language and culture, of passing down knowledge about tracking and hunting. What started as just a few land claimants quickly grew to several hundred as word about the claim spread across the open spaces of the Northern Cape.
The 500 or so land claimants collectively known as the Khomani San were, in fact, a disparate group of individuals, but the symbolism of their successful land claim was powerful and until that Human Rights Day they were relatively united.
Then things began to fall apart.
Now it appears they are being put back together. Apart from agreeing to an interview on this matter, Mgoqi sent us a copy of an eight-page briefing document prepared by a deputy director in his department in response to the Mail & Guardian’s queries.
The briefing document acknowledges procedural failures but commits the commission to supporting communities following land transfer.
According to the document, former minister of land affairs Derek Hanekom allocated a person from his ministry to assist the San community with its planning. But the minister was replaced before such a person was formally assigned and donor funding fell through.
Then, the Northern Cape Department of Land Affairs set about establishing a steering committee to ensure the effective drafting of a business plan, but the committee never materialised because of “lack of capacity due to the resignation of two staff members responsible for that area and the changing role of the commission”.
The document commits the commission to providing further support to the San and other communities: “The nature and form of assistance to be rendered by the commission is a matter currently under investigation by the commission and is being planned in different ways in different cases. The Khomani San project is one of our key projects being used to formulate a framework to be implemented in other restitution projects.”
While the San claim represented “a significant milestone in the progress of the land restitution programme, it is acknowledged that the challenge now lies in the areas of sustainable settlement and poverty alleviation in rural communities such as this”.
The “international significance” of the San community lent itself to “external assistance” (read foreign funding) and the San project would be presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August, the document concludes.
Human rights lawyer Roger Chennels, who has represented the Khomani San throughout the land restitution saga, said the effect of appointing a manager was that the Department of Land Affairs had “agreed to take over legal custodianship of the CPA … it’s not formal curatorship, but legally it’s an extra oversight role”.
Land reform specialist Kobus Pienaar of the Legal Resources Centre said most CPAs he knew of had encountered difficulties in dealing with transferred land without proper mechanisms being in place to divide the spoils. It was a very tall order to expect brand new CPAs to perform functions usually performed by municipalities and deeds offices.
Said Pienaar: “What’s very positive in the Kalahari is that the Department of Land Affairs is coming to the party by appointing a manager to provide managerial support and to help the process of the allocation and regulation of people’s rights.”
According to figures supplied by the Department of Land Affairs, by the end of the 2001/2002 financial year the government would have spent R1,43-billion settling 32389 land claims representing 385891 people and more than 583000ha.
Freelance journalists Roger Friedman and Benny Gool are currently investigating land reform for the Legal Resources Centre