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Abstract
In 2018, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his government’s intention to pursue land expropriation without compensation. In a country where wealth and poverty still run largely along apartheid-era racial lines, this policy is widely associated with transferring white-owned agricultural property to landless and impoverished blacks. As with preceding land reform policy, expropriation without compensation is informed by a ‘master narrative’ of 20th-century black dispossession through rural land loss, urban forced removals and impoverishment. This article highlights how the recent revitalisation of the land debate has stimulated the more assertive articulation of competing historical narratives of land (dis)possession. We scrutinise such alternative master narratives emanating from two groups claiming to represent marginalised minorities whose identity and experience differ from that of black South Africans: Khoisan activists who mobilise discourses of indigeneity and prior occupancy, and the Afrikaner interest group AfriForum, which deploys discourses of expertise, rationality and impartiality to legitimise their representations of the past. Despite vast differences in the nature of these movements as well as the historical narratives they advance, they have shown instances of mutual support and apparent co-operation. We trace these to key intersections in their historical narratives and the opportunities these offer in the context of the ANC’s flagging electoral support. Understanding how master narratives compete is not only necessary to appraise South Africa’s current political juncture – it equally reveals how citizens who feel excluded and marginalised turn to history to carve out space, legitimacy and support for their agendas in this fraught environment.
Acknowledgements
We thank Berber Bevernage, Eline Mestdagh, Walderez Ramalho and Marie-Gabrielle Verbergt for their input in the early stages of this research.
Notes
1 In contemporary South Africa, the apartheid-era racial classifiers ‘black’, ‘Indian’, ‘coloured’ and ‘white’ remain socially significant and ubiquitous in popular and official discourse.
2 Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994, available at https://www.justice.gov.za/lcc/docs/1994-022.pdf, retrieved 12 May 2022.
3 C. Walker, ‘The Limits to Land Reform: Rethinking “the land question”’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 31, 4 (2005), p. 817.
4 These included abandoning the market-driven ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ principle in the land redistribution programme in 2007, and in 2014 extending the period in which land claims could be lodged until 2019 – a move that was declared unconstitutional in 2016. It should be noted that, contrary to popular perception, the land restitution process is not dictated by the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ principle but in fact makes provision for expropriation. However, the state has so far opted not to invoke this, except in a very limited number of cases or as a threat to effectuate a settlement. B. Cousins, ‘Land Reform in South Africa Is Failing. Can It Be Saved?’, Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 92, 1 (2017), pp. 136–9. See also S. Koot, R. Hitchcock and C. Gressier, ‘Belonging, Indigeneity, Land and Nature in Southern Africa under Neoliberal Capitalism: An Overview’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 45, 2 (2019), p. 344; O. Zenker, ‘De-judicialization, Outsourced Review and All-too-flexible Bureaucracies in South African Land Restitution’, The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 33, 1 (2015), pp. 81–96.
5 For an analysis of the complexity around the state’s performance in this regard, see O. Zenker, ‘Failure by the Numbers? Settlement Statistics as Indicators of State Performance in South African Land Restitution’ in R. Rottenburg et al. (eds), A World of Indicators: The Making of Governmental Knowledge through Quantification (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 102–26.
6 South African Human Rights Commission, Equality Report 2017/18: Achieving Substantive Economic Equality through Rights-based Radical Socio-economic Transformation in South Africa (2018), p. 4.
7 See for example C. Walker, ‘Critical Reflections on South Africa’s 1913 Natives Land Act and Its Legacies: Introduction’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40, 4 (2014), pp. 655–6; A.O. Akinola, ‘Land Reform in South Africa: Interrogating the Securitisation of Land Expropriation Without Compensation’, Politikon 47, 2 (2020), pp. 223, 228.
8 A. Mseba, ‘The Trajectories of Land Reforms in Southern Africa’s Former Settler Colonies’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 44, 6 (2018), p. 1,156; T. Kepe and R. Hall, ‘Land Redistribution in South Africa: Towards Decolonisation or Recolonisation?’, Politikon, 45, 1 (2018), pp. 129–30.
9 A. Beresford, South Africa’s Political Crisis: Unfinished Liberation and Fractured Class Struggles (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); J. Brown, South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens: On Dissent and the Possibility of Politics (London: Zed Books, 2015).
10 Walker, ‘The Limits to Land Reform’, p. 806.
11 Kepe and Hall, ‘Land Redistribution in South Africa’, p. 129; Walker, ‘Critical Reflections’, pp. 655–6; Akinola, ‘Land Reform in South Africa: Interrogating the Securitisation of Land Expropriation’, pp. 223, 228; L. Veracini and R. Verbuyst, ‘South Africa’s Settler-colonial Present: Khoisan Revivalism and the Question of Indigeneity’, Social Dynamics 46, 2 (2020), p. 268.
12 Akinola, ‘Land Reform in South Africa: Interrogating the Securitisation of Land Expropriation’, pp. 215, 226.
13 Walker, ‘Critical Reflections’, p. 656; see also Walker, ‘The Limits to Land Reform’; C. Walker ‘Relocating Restitution’, Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 44 (2000), pp. 1–16.
14 Walker, ‘Critical Reflections’, p. 656.
15 Walker, ‘The Limits to Land Reform’, p. 808.
16 Walker, ‘Relocating Restitution’, p. 7.
17 Kepe and Hall, ‘Land Redistribution in South Africa’, p. 129.
18 See for example A.O. Akinola, ‘Land Reform in South Africa: An Appraisal’, Africa Review, 10, 1 (2018), pp. 1–16; Akinola, ‘Land Reform in South Africa: Interrogating the Securitisation of Land Expropriation’.
19 Walker, ‘The Limits to Land Reform’; C. Walker, ‘Finite Land: Challenges Institutionalising Land Restitution in South Africa, 1995–2000’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 38, 4 (2012), pp. 809–26; O. Zenker, ‘South African Land Restitution, White Claimants and the Fateful Frontier of Former KwaNdebele’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 5, pp. 1019–34; Kepe and Hall, ‘Land Redistribution in South Africa’; papers in the special issue introduced by Walker, ‘Critical Reflections’; H. Becker, ‘Introduction to Anthropology Southern Africa Special Issue on “Engaging Difference: Perspectives on Belonging and Exclusion in Contemporary Southern and East Africa”’, Anthropology Southern Africa, 33, 3–4 (2010), pp. 75–80.
20 Kepe and Hall, ‘Land Redistribution in South Africa’.
21 The spelling and overall usage of the term ‘Khoisan’ is widely contested, as are the many alternative labels used to refer collectively to South Africa’s indigenous people.
22 G. Nicolson, ‘AfriForum Joins Khoisan in Land Rights Fight’, Daily Maverick (22 February 2012), available at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-02-22-afriforum-joins-khoisan-in-land-rights-fight/#.WPiu1FWLQkJ, retrieved 5 October 2021.
23 See for example L. Ntsebeza and R. Hall, The Land Question in South Africa: The Challenge of Transformation and Redistribution (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2007); Walker et al., Land, Memory, Reconstruction and Justice: Perspectives on Land Claims in South Africa (Athens, Ohio/Pietermaritzburg, Ohio University Press/University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2010); Cousins, ‘Land Reform in South Africa’.
24 See for example L. Ntsebeza, Democracy Compromised: Chiefs and the Politics of the Land in South Africa (Leiden, Brill Academic, 2005); J. Gibson, Overcoming Historical Injustices: Land Reconciliation in South Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009); W. Ellis, ‘Genealogies and Narratives of San Authenticities. The ≠ Khomani San Land Claim in the Southern Kalahari’ (PhD thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2012); R. Verbuyst, ‘Claiming Cape Town: Towards a Symbolic Interpretation of Khoisan Activism and Land Claims’, Anthropology Southern Africa, 39, 2 (2016), pp. 83–96.
25 Walker, ‘Relocating Restitution’, pp. 7, 14.
26 Zenker, ‘South African Land Restitution’. p. 1,020.
27 Walker, ‘Critical Reflections’; Akinola, ‘Land Reform in South Africa’.
28 M. Besten, ‘Transformation and Reconstitution of Khoe-San Identities: AAS le Fleur I, Griqua Identities and Post-Apartheid Khoe-San Revivalism (1894–2004)’ (PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2006).
29 H.C. Bredekamp, ‘Khoisan Revivalism and the Indigenous Peoples Issue in Post-Apartheid South Africa’, in A. Barnard and J. Kenrick (eds), Africa’s Indigenous Peoples: ‘First peoples’ or ‘marginalised minorities’? (Edinburgh, Centre of African Studies, 2001), pp. 191–210.
30 C. Sato, ‘Khoisan Revivalism and Land Question in Post-Apartheid South Africa’, in F. Brandt and G. Mkodzongi (eds), Land Reform Revisited: Democracy, State Making and Agrarian Transformation in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Leiden/Boston, Brill Academic, 2018), pp. 202–6.
31 For more on these various facets of Khoisan activism, see J. Bam, ‘Contemporary Khoisan Heritage Issues in South Africa: A Brief Historical Overview’, in L. Ntsebeza and C. Saunders (eds), Papers from the Pre-Colonial Catalytic Project (Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 2014), pp. 123–35; S. Øvernes, Street Khoisan: On Belonging, Recognition and Survival (Pretoria, Unisa Press, 2019). For a more comprehensive overview of Khoisan revivalism’s intellectual roots and political aspirations, see R. Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness: Articulating Indigeneity in Post-Apartheid Cape Town’ (PhD thesis, Ghent University/University of the Western Cape, 2021).
32 R. Niezen, The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003), pp. 18–23.
33 Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’, p. 106.
34 This information comes from the homepage (ifnasa.co.za), as well as the ‘What We Do’ section, available at https://ifnasa.co.za/what-we-do/, retrieved 25 September 2021.
35 Sato, ‘Khoisan Revivalism and Land Question’; Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’.
36 A written summary and audio recording of the hearing can be found in ‘Section 25 Review of Constitution: Public Hearings Day 3’, Parliamentary Monitoring Group (6 September 2018), available at https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/27029/, retrieved 25 September 2021.
37 See for example Z. Khoisan, ‘Erfenis Projek in Overberg-streek kan Lewens Verbeter’, ENN (August 2017), p. 4.
38 For more on this point see Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’, pp. 188–224.
39 ‘Khoi-San: Abolish the Term “Coloured”’, News24 (24 May 2013), available at https://www.news24.com/News24/Khoi-San-Abolish-the-term-coloured-20130524, retrieved 25 September 2021.
40 Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’, p. 265–8; Niezen, The Origins of Indigenism, pp. 5, 17.
41 See for example ‘Hands Off Oude Molen’, ENN (February–March 2014), p. 8.
42 W. Langeveldt, ‘Herstel van Khoisan Grondregte En Ekonomiese Bemagtiging’, in Institute for Historical Research (ed.), National Khoisan Consultative Conference Oudtshoorn: 29 March to 1 April 2001 (Cape Town, Institute for Historical Research, 2001), p. 71.
43 L. Campbell, ‘Shameful Exclusion of First Nation. Where are Stories of Ancient Heroes?’, ENN (July 2016), p. 12.
44 ‘Online Readers React’, ENN (December 2013), p. 7.
45 M. Besent, ‘Khomani San Distance Themselves from Khoisan Sovereign State Call’, SABC News (20 July 2018), available at http://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/khomani-san-distance-selves-khoisan-seceded-call/, retrieved 25 September 2021.
46 See also ‘Khoisan Group “Evicts” ANC’, Daily Voice (18 July 2018), available at https://www.dailyvoice.co.za/news/western-cape/khoisan-group-evicts-anc-16088094, retrieved 25 September 2021.
47 Sovereign State of Good Hope, The Intention of The Sovereign State of Good Hope (s.l., unpublished manifesto, 2018), pp. 2, 15–16.
48 See for example ‘Northern Cape Says YES To Expropriation’, Solomon Star (3 July 2018), available at https://solomonstar.co.za/northern-cape-says-yes-expropriation/, retrieved 25 September 2021; Ad Hoc Committee to Initiate and Introduce Legislation Amending Section 25 of the Constitution, ‘Report on Public Participation on the Eighteenth Constitution Amendment Bill’, Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (16 April 2021), available at https://pmg.org.za/tabled-committee-report/4541/, retrieved 25 September 2021, pp. 66–7, 75. See also Sato, ‘Khoisan Revivalism and Land Question’, p. 207.
49 R. Sylvain, ‘Disorderly Development: Globalization and the Idea of “Culture” in the Kalahari’, American Ethnologist, 32, 3 (2005), p. 357.
50 R. Richards, Bastaards Or Humans: The Unspoken Heritage of Coloured People (Volume 1) (Sunnyvale, Indaba Publishing, 2017), pp. 130–31, 155.
51 B. Coetzee, Tears of the Praying Mantis. The Christian Church and the Conversion of the Khoikhoi to ‘Coloured’ Christian Identity (Cape Town, Mbana Publishing and Printing, 2019), p. xvii.
52 See for example C. le Fleur, The National Khoi-San Council’s Response to the Opening Speech of the President at the NHTL (2018). Unpublished text, courtesy of Chantal Revell.
53 See for example ‘Resoluties van Inheemse Parlement’, ENN (August 2017), p. 5.
54 Sato, ‘Khoisan Revivalism and Land Question’, p. 209.
55 R. Stavenhagen, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People – Mission to South Africa (Geneva, United Nations, 2005), p. 3.
56 J. Gilbert, ‘Historical Indigenous Peoples’ Land Claims: A Comparative and International Approach to the Common Law Doctrine on Indigenous Title’, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 56, 3 (2007), p. 609.
57 S. Koot and B. Büscher, ‘Giving Land (Back)? The Meaning of Land in the Indigenous Politics of the South Kalahari Bushmen Land Claim, South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 45, 2 (2019), p. 358.
58 See for example R. Martin, Eykamma’s Story. Mapping the Systematic Dispossession of the Indigenous People (1652–) (2014). Unpublished PowerPoint presentation, courtesy of Ron Martin.
59 Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’, p. 148.
60 Ibid., pp. 136, 154–5.
61 R. Bergwater, ‘We Need a Mini CODESA with Khoi Leadership’, ENN (June 2014), p. 6.
62 Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’, pp. 366–74.
63 Williams for instance repeatedly insisted that ‘Nguni and Bantu people’ are ‘family’ who also suffer from racism and have valid claims to land.
64 B. Ndenze, ‘Land Expropriation to Have Negative Impact on Khoi Community’, EWN (5 August 2018), available at https://ewn.co.za/2018/08/05/land-expropriation-to-have-negative-impact-on-the-khoi-community, retrieved 25 September 2021; ‘Worcester Residents Say Expropriation of Land Without Compensation is Crucial for Decolonisation’, available at https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/worcester-residents-say-expropriation-land-without-compensation-crucial-decolonisation, retrieved 25 September 2021.
65 South African Human Rights Commission, Submission to the Joint Constitutional Review Committee Regarding Section 25 of the Constitution (2018), p. 17; Report of the South African Human Rights Commission: National Hearing Relating to the Human Rights Situation of the Khoi-San in South Africa (2018), p. 74.
66 Ad Hoc Committee, ‘Report on Public Participation’, pp. 72–9.
67 The Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act provides recognition for vetted Khoisan traditional leaders, but in an equal capacity as members of other ethnic groups. Section 1, Subsection 2 of the Act clarifies at the onset that it does not bestow upon anyone ‘any special indigenous, first nation or any other similar status’.
68 See for example S. Jacobs and Z. Levenson, ‘The Limits of Coloured Nationalism’, Mail & Guardian (13 June 2018), available at https://mg.co.za/article/2018-06-13-00-the-limits-of-coloured-nationalism/, retrieved 25 September 2021. For a discussion of the applicability of the international discourse on indigenous people and rights to the South African context, see Sato, ‘Khoisan Revivalism and Land Question’; Veracini and Verbuyst, ‘South Africa’s Settler-colonial Present’.
69 Z. Erasmus, Race Otherwise: Forging A New Humanism for South Africa (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2017).
70 See Verbuyst, ‘Khoisan Consciousness’.
71 See https://afriforum.co.za/, retrieved 9 February 2021.
72 On the history of the Solidarity Movement since 1902, see W. Visser, A History of the South African Mine Workers’ Union, 1902–2014 (Lewiston, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2016). On the more recent history of the Movement and its organisational strategies, see D. van Zyl-Hermann, Privileged Precariat: White Workers and South Africa’s Long Transition to Majority Rule (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021), and footnote 73 below.
73 On the Solidarity Movement’s national populism, see D. van Zyl-Hermann, ‘Make Afrikaners Great Again! National Populism, Democracy and the New White Minority Politics in Post-apartheid South Africa’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41, 15 (2018), pp. 2,673–92. On the institutions and initiatives comprising the Movement, see https://beweging.co.za/beweginginstellings/ and https://beweging.co.za/wat-is-die-solidariteit-beweging/, both retrieved 26 July 2021.
74 See for instance SAPA, ‘AfriForum “Defender of White Privilege”: ANCYL’, IOL (6 June 2012), available at https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/afriforum-defender-of-white-priviledge-ancyl-1313072; F. Chothia, ‘South Africa: The Groups Playing on the Fears of a “White Genocide”’, BBC News (1 September 2018), available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45336840; M. Kekana, ‘I Don’t Think Apartheid was a Crime against Humanity – AfriForum’s Kriel’, Mail & Guardian (14 May 2018), available at https://mg.co.za/article/2018-05-14-i-dont-think-apartheid-was-a-crime-against-humanity-afriforums-kallie-kriel/; M. du Preez, ‘The Problem AfriForum is Causing the DA’, News24 (15 May 2018), available at https://www.news24.com/news24/Columnists/MaxduPreez/the-problem-afriforum-is-causing-the-da-20180515, all retrieved 9 August 2021.
75 A. Rademeyer, ‘Van klein begin tot burgerregtewaghond in 15 jaar’ (25 March 2021), available at https://afriforum.co.za/van-klein-begin-tot-burgerregtewaghond-in-15-jaar/, retrieved 26 July 2021.
76 AfriForum, ‘Expropriation without Compensation: The NDR Has Failed’ (6 September 2018), available at https://pmg.org.za/files/180906AFRIFORUM.docx, retrieved 26 July 2021.
77 AfriForum, ‘Expropriation without Compensation: A Disaster in Waiting’, p. 75 (no date), available at https://pmg.org.za/files/180906-AfriForum-Land-and-land-reform-Draft-2-compressed-1.pdf, retrieved 26 July 2021.
78 TimesLive, ‘AfriForum Mulling Legal Action on Land Expropriation without Compensation’ (10 June 2018), available at https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-06-10-afriforum-mulling-legal-action-on-land-expropriation-without-compensation/, retrieved 26 July 2021.
79 AfriForum, ‘AfriSake en AfriForum bied nasionale inligtingsessies oor grondonteiening aan’ (26 March 2018), available at https://afriforum.co.za/afrisake-en-afriforum-bied-nasionale-inligtingsessies-oor-grondonteiening-aan/, retrieved 26 July 2021.
80 E. Roets, Kill the Boer: Government Complicity in South Africa’s Brutal Farm Murders (Kraal Uitgewers, Centurion, 2018). The publisher Kraal Uitgewers is part of the Solidarity Movement.
81 ‘Minority of Farmers Struggle for Survival in South Africa’, FoxNews (16 May 2018), available at http://video.foxnews.com/v/5785308294001/?#sp=show-clips, retrieved 26 August 2018.
82 ‘Overview: “There’s a Black Genocide in SA and US” – EFF Hits Back at Trump Following Twitter Storm’, News24 (23 August 2018), available at https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-sa-reacts-to-donald-trump-comments-on-land-expropriation-farm-murders-20180823, retrieved 26 August 2018.
83 A. Rademeyer, ‘AfriForum-hoës in VS vir bewusmaking oor plaasmoorde en onteiening’, Maroela Media (2 May 2018), available at https://maroelamedia.co.za/nuus/sa-nuus/afriforum-hoes-in-vsa-vir-bewusmaking-oor-plaasmoorde-en-onteiening/, retrieved 1 June 2018. AfriForum apparently also met with right-wing political parties like Germany’s AFD and France’s Front National. B. Hans and K. Chetty, ‘“Kriel trying to revise history”’, Pretoria News (16 May 2018), available at https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/pretoria-news/20180516/281603831114951, retrieved 24 August 2022.
84 R. Grobler, ‘Recap: Trump Tweets and SA Goes Berserk – Here’s What Was Said and by Whom’, News24 (23 August 2018), available at https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/p2-trump-tweets-and-sa-goes-berserk-heres-what-was-said-and-by-whom-20180823, retrieved 6 December 2018; ‘South Africa’s White Right, the Alt-Right and the Alternative’, The Conversation (4 October 2018), available at https://theconversation.com/south-africas-white-right-the-alt-right-and-the-alternative-103544, retrieved 4 December 2018; P. Du Toit, ‘AfriForum's Land-Reform Sales Pitch: “Help Us Stop The Commies”’, Huffpost (18 April 2018) available at https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2018/04/12/selling-the-drama-the-land-debate-as-a-sales-pitch_a_23409707/, retrieved 11 May 2018.
85 AfriForum, ‘Onteiening sonder vergoeding: AfriForum versoek internasionale beleggers in videoboodskap om druk op SA-regering te plaas’ (1 August 2018), available at https://afriforum.co.za/onteiening-sonder-vergoeding-afriforum-versoek-internasionale-beleggers-videoboodskap-om-druk-op-sa-regering-te-plaas/, retrieved 26 July 2021.
86 AfriForum, ‘AfriForum plaas saak van onteiening sonder vergoeding in kollig by VN’ (22 November 2018), available at https://afriforum.co.za/afriforum-plaas-saak-van-onteiening-sonder-vergoeding-kollig-vn/, retrieved 26 July 2021.
87 Prior to Disrupted Land, Forum Films had released exposé-type films on issues such as white poverty, farm murders and the ANC’s struggle history.
88 Unless indicated otherwise, all subsequent quotations are from Forum Films, Disrupted Land (2019), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhMqc7exTus, retrieved 20 July 2020.
89 Louis Changuion and Liza-Marie Oberholzer are both simply identified as ‘historian’ in the documentary. We could not find much of an academic footprint for either, but Changuion seems previously to have been with the University of the North (now Limpopo) and has published on the South African War, while Oberholzer was a PhD student in history at the University of Johannesburg at the time of the documentary’s making.
90 The idea of ‘terra nullius’ has a long history – see C. Boisen, ‘From Land Dispossession to Land Restitution: European Land Rights in South Africa’, Settler Colonial Studies, 7, 3 (2017), pp. 321–39.
91 ‘No Grounds for Sanitising Apartheid’s Tragic and Callous History – IRR’, IRR (12 March 2019), available at https://irr.org.za/media/19-12-march-press-release-apartheid-12-03-19.pdf/view, retrieved 29 July 2021; G. van Onselen, ‘AfriForum’s Disgraceful and Immoral Documentary’ (14 March 2019), available at https://martinplaut.com/2019/03/14/south-africa-an-excoriating-critique-of-afriforums-view-of-land-reform/, retrieved 20 July 2020.
92 ‘“Verwoerd” Documentary Must be Retracted, Urges IRR, AfriFroum Says “nee wat”’, News24 (13 March 2019), available at https://www.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/verwoerd-documentary-must-retracted-urges-irr-afriforum-says-neewat-20190313, retrieved 9 February 2021; K. Kriel, ‘Expropriation, Disrupted Land and the IRR’, News24 (17 March 2019), available at https://www.news24.com/news24/Columnists/GuestColumn/expropriation-disrupted-land-and-the-irr-20190317, retrieved 9 February 2021.
93 These statements were made in an addendum to the film. The two-part addendum was not nearly as widely viewed as the documentary itself. ‘Disrupted Land – Addendum Part 1’ (26 March 2019), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGolqnhY1nI and ‘Disrupted Land – Addendum Part 2’ (27 March 2019), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KLEpmUvWr4&t=1s, both retrieved 20 July 2020.
94 ‘Tucker Presses South African Civil Rights Activist on Why People are Leaving’, Fox News (17 July 2021), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtMbUO4E-eQ, retrieved 30 July 2021.
95 AfriForum is not the only Afrikaner interest group connecting with Khoisan activists. The conservative Afrikaner political party, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), also on occasion emphasises Afrikaners’ and the Khoisans’ mutual fate as marginalised minorities, and contributed content, advertisements and financial support to ENN. S. Douglas, ‘The Human Isthmus: Dangerous Diluted Sewerage Poison… Recuperating “Bushman” in the “New South Africa”’, Critical Arts, 9, 2 (1995), pp. 66–7; Bam, ‘Contemporary Khoisan Heritage Issues’, p. 126; Besent, ‘Khomani San Distance Themselves’; P. Mulder, ‘Is vryheid moontlik vir KhoiSan?’, ENN (July 2013), p. 7. See also Z. Khoisan, ‘KhoiSan stem word gesoek’, ENN (March–April 2014), p. 2.
96 Nicolson, ‘AfriForum joins Khoisan’.
97 K. Kriel, ‘Steun vir eerste Nasie Status’, ENN (December 2013), p. 11.
98 Mulder, ‘Is vryheid moontlik’. See also Khoisan, ‘KhoiSan stem word gesoek’.
99 ‘Kersgroete en hartelike dank’, ENN (December 2013), p.5.
100 Sovereign State of Good Hope, The Intention, pp. 15–6, 24.
101 See also ‘Press Statement – Khoi San Land Summit’, available at https://www.facebook.com/notes/khoi-san-land-summit/press-statement-khoi-san-land-summit/566603007048724/, retrieved 20 October 2021.
102 S. Hlatshaneni, ‘Mngxitama, AfriForum at Odds over Khoi-San “Being the First Nation”’, The Citizen (25 April 2018), available at https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1905418/khoi-san-should-get-first-dibs-on-land/, retrieved 20 October 2021.
103 This is stated by an FF + representative regarding co-operation between the party and various Khoisan groups: A. Alberts, ‘Hoe gemaak om regte te eis’, ENN (May 2014), p. 13. See also Khoisan, ‘KhoiSan stem word gesoek’.
104 For more on this, see Veracini and Verbuyst, ‘South Africa’s Settler-colonial Present’, p. 13. It should be noted that certain Afrikaner interest groups have claimed the status of indigenous people, including at the United Nations, but these efforts were unsuccessful.
105 Nicolson, ‘AfriForum joins Khoisan’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Danelle van Zyl-Hermann
Danelle van Zyl-Hermann
Department of History, University of Basel, Hirschgässlein 21, 4051 Basel, Switzerland; International Studies Group, Humanities Faculty, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa. Email: [email protected]
Rafael Verbuyst
Rafael Verbuyst
Department of History, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwsstraat 35, 9000 Gent, Belgium; San and Khoi Unit, Centre for African Studies, Harry Oppenheimer Institute Building (Level 3), Engineering Mall Road, University of Cape Town, Upper Campus, Rondebosch, Cape Town,7701, South Africa. Email: [email protected]