San activist Jan van der Westhuizen at SAHRC community meeting

© SA Human Rights Commission / afrol News

afrol News, 7 March - South Africa's aboriginal people, the San (formerly named "Bushmen") still face widespread discrimination, according to the national Human Rights Commission. An inquiry found proof of "police victimisation and harassment" and of "discrimination and sexual abuse" of San children in local schools.

The San people, which are the oldest known population of the entire Southern African region, has been marginalised as hunters and gatherers in the region's less fertile areas ever since the arrival of the Bantu people. In South Africa, only a small minority has survived. With the end of apartheid ten years ago, the San were optimistic on regaining the future.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) however had been alarmed some years ago that the country's Khomani San community still was not fully enjoying their human rights. An inquiry into their situation, published last week, showed that the San "continue to live in abject conditions."

In 1999 the Khomani San community successfully reclaimed large areas of land in the Andriesvale-Askam area of the southern Kalahari desert, in terms of the national Land Reform Programme. It seemed that a new time had begun for the community, after a long history of persecution, dispossession and marginalisation.

The SAHRC inquiry found that the Khomani San "continue to live in poverty and neglect." It was "difficult for the outsider to imagine the sadness and disappointment of the community," the report said. Since their land had been successfully reclaimed, there had been no policy to aid the long-disadvantaged Khomani San people.

Living in despair, the San community was living in conflict with local police, who according to the report's findings were "in need of a fundamental change in attitude, accompanied where possible by a change in personnel, in order to restore relationships with the community."

Several serious allegations have been made against the police operating in the area where the Khomani San community resides, and many have been proven true. Local police is accused of killing one San activist. Five key community members have died in murders the police have failed to solve. Police abuse against the San community and racist attitudes were widely reported.

There were further "serious allegations of child sexual abuse and harassment" at the local school. The failure to address these allegations by municipal authorities and police were leading San parents not to send their children to school. Lack of daily transport for the Khomani San children, who live at some distance from the schools, also lowered school attendance. A mere 3.6 percent of the Khomani San community has matriculated.

An estimated 700 Khomani San live in the Andriesvale-Askam area in South Africa's Northern Cape Province. The community over several years has raised its concerns over lacking municipal service deliveries, discrimination and police violence. The SAHRC inquiry in general terms established that the San community was even worse off than previously feared.

There are also larger San communities in other Southern African countries, in particular Botswana and Namibia. Also here, the San are facing discrimination and dispossession. This is in particular the fact in Botswana, were the Gwi and Gana communities of the San recently were expelled from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to open the area for game tourism and diamond exploration.

By staff writers

© afrol News

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