The decision to press a land claim was taken by the whole Richtersveld community and not just a section of it, an anthropologist told the Land Claims Court on Wednesday.
Dr Susanne Berzborn, of Germany’s Cologne University, who did her doctoral thesis on the community, was testifying in support of the Richtersvelders’ demand for the return of 85 000ha of diamond-rich land and compensation that could total R2,5-billion.
The demands, which include R10-million for hardship and suffering inflicted on what the plaintiffs call ”the Richtersveld community”, are being challenged by state-owned diamond company Alexkor and the government.
Advocate Henk Havenga, appearing for the government, told Berzborn it appeared from her thesis that when the land claim process started, the intention was to lodge it only on behalf of the long-standing Nama residents and to exclude the Bosluis Baster group, relatively recent incomers from elsewhere in the Northern Cape.
”I don’t know whether that is correct,” said Berzborn. ”But to the best of my knowledge at the time when people decided to reclaim the land, it was assumed at the time it would rather be Nama.
”But when the first application was made, Nina Adams [a Baster] was involved, for example.”
Havenga said it appeared from her thesis that the idea to include the larger Richtersveld community, not just the Nama, in fact came from the lawyers appointed to deal with the claim.
Berzborn said she had noted many times in the thesis that it was the entire community that was behind the land claim.
”The Richtersveld community as a whole took this decision,” she said.
Havenga put it to her that her thesis said it had been necessary to ”construct” a community and that she had used this word several times.
”’Construct’ does not mean invention,” replied Berzborn. ”Construction means emphasising aspects that are in part already there. What I said in 2000 [in an earlier round of the hearing] and again in my dissertation is that identity is dependent on context.”
Asked if the concept of a larger Richtersveld community is accepted by everyone in the region, she said there are certainly ”one or two” who do not agree, but most people accept it.
Havenga quoted from the thesis an interview with a 65-year-old Nama man at Kuboes, who asserted that the claim should in fact benefit only the Nama, because it had been their land.
The old man said the Basters are now claiming they are Nama through descent on their maternal side.
”Now suddenly everyone want to be a Nama, but that is only because of the land claims,” the old man said.
Berzborn said that is the opinion of one person.
She said it is not in dispute that the Basters cannot speak Nama and have a completely different history.
”The Bosluis Basters don’t want to be Nama. Why should they?” she asked.
She said the ”everyone” the old man was referring to are, in fact, not Basters but other people who have come in from outside the area.
”I’m sure we can put our own interpretation to the words quoted,” said Havenga.
Quizzed by Judge Antonie Gildenhuys on the relevance of his questioning, Havenga said it has to do with the claim for hardship and suffering.
Geoff Budlender, a member of the Richtersvelders’ team, told the court that his clients will admit that not everyone and every part of the community suffered in the same way. — Sapa