Question NW97 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
01 August 2024 - NW97
Taaibosch, Mr G to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Whether his department will give recognition to the first Khoi and San kings and chiefs this year; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
No. The Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, 2019 (Act No. 3 of 2019) (TKLA), which is the basis for which Khoi-San communities and leaders are recognised only makes provision for the recognition of Senior Khoi-San leaders and Branch Heads, and not for the recognition of Khoi-San kings and chiefs.
I am advised that my predecessor, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma established the Commission on Khoi-San Matters (the Commission) on 1 September 2021 in compliance with section 52(1)(a) of the TKLA. In terms of the Act, the mandate of the Commission is to receive applications for recognition of Khoi-San communities and leaders, conduct research and investigations on the received applications and make recommendations to the Minister for a decision on the recognition of Khoi-San communities, hereditary senior Khoi-San leaders, elected senior Khoi-San leaders and branches and branch heads.
Section 5 of the Act specifies the qualifying criteria for which an applicant community and person should comply to be recognised as a Khoi-San Community and leader, respectively. I am advised that to date the Commission received 125 applications for recognition of Khoi-San communities and leaders and all the applications were not compliant with the criteria, they did not have the required information and documents for the Commission to determine whether they qualify for recognition in terms of the set criteria. Therefore the Commission could not make recommendations to the Minister for a decision.
To address this challenge the Commission had to start a process of supporting the applicants to accurately complete the application form and submit information required in terms of the criteria in section 5 of the Act, the process which the Commission refers to as Applicant Member Investigations (AMIs). I am advised that, to date the Commission has completed 47 AMIs of the received applications, 40 applicant members refused to partake in the AMIs. I am further advised that the Commission will finalise the AMIs for the remaining applications in the current financial year, after which the process of consolidating recommendations to the Minister will follow.
End.