Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, members and guests, as a representative of the Northern Cape province in the NCOP, I need to start off with issues close to home and to my heart.
The Namaqualand and Namib Deserts are both named after the people who first lived in this particular area. Today the Nama people, also called the Bushman people, have become forgotten in a complex world. The indigenous people from the greater part of the Northern Cape, although the first people who lived in the area, now receive second-class treatment across South Africa. These people have seldom acquired any meaningful degree of wealth, nor gained access to political power. The political nexus continues to exclude the interests of these dispossessed and traditionally exploited people.
For interest's sake, for those of you who didn't know, Madiba has been shown to have a significant Khoisan lineage. Moreover, historical records show that the Khoisan people have been established throughout the Northern Cape and South Africa for at least the past 25 000 to 50 000 years. This is far longer than any of the other groups, who only migrated to the southern reaches of Africa around 1 000 years ago. Now, I would like to ask Mr Malema: Who took whose land?
The !Kung and Khwe Bushman served the apartheid South African military forces as trackers before 1994, and were initially resettled at Schmidtsdrift near Kimberley, and later at Platfontein, also near Kimberley.
The reason for my holding this history session today is to make us all aware of how we have forgotten to take care of the history of the longest living tribe of South Africa. We should be ashamed of the lack of effort, the effort not being made, to keep this rich history alive.
The vision of the Department of Arts and Culture is actually to develop and preserve South African culture and to ensure social cohesion and nation- building. After raising this issue with the department a year ago, nothing has been done to date, except what I have just heard from the Deputy Minister on the dictionary. I am happy to hear about that.
If you look at the new budget it is obvious that even our Department of Arts and Culture has decided that these forgotten tribes are out of sight, out of mind. I would ask the Minister to please take note of my plea and make a greater effort in regard to the !Kung and Khwe tribes. [Interjections.] Can I please continue? Thank you.