[WSMDiscuss] Fw: Cobuqua Submission on the Traditional Leadership & Governance Framework (TL&GF) Amendment Bill

[josephywade at yahoo.com]

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-----Original Message-----
From: josephywade at yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2017 21:23:33 
To: josephywade at yahoo.com<josephywade at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: josephywade at yahoo.com
Subject: Fw: Cobuqua Submission on the Traditional Leadership & Governance Framework (TL&GF) Amendment Bill



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-----Original Message-----
From: Marjorie Jobson <marje at khulumani.net>
Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2017 22:11:24 
To: Shereen Cassiem<scassiem at parliament.gov.za>; josephywade at yahoo.com<josephywade at yahoo.com>
Subject: Cobuqua Submission on the Traditional Leadership & Governance
 Framework (TL&GF) Amendment Bill

Honourable Ms Cassiem,
Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs,
3rd Floor, 90 Plein Street,
Cape Town, 8000

Dear Ms Cassiem,

Thank you for the opportunity to submit the perspectives and concerns of
the Cobuqua people on the proposed amendment to the TL&GF Act.

The concerns relate to the incremental building of a single, overarching
system of governance for traditional communities despite their very
different histories that have vastly different outcomes for the different
communities. The Cobuqua people have awaited the resolution of the land
claim they submitted in 1998. There is still no outcome to that
long-submitted claim.

Very few of the land claims submitted by Khoi-San communities have been
addressed. This means that there is the existence of only *virtual
territories* over which Khoi-San traditional leaders preside, while the
traditional leaders of black African communities have authority as
guardians of real land over which they serve a stewardship role in the best
interest of the members of their communities.

These material differences between Khoi-San and black African traditional
communities means that *a one-size-fits-all solution *cannot provide
justice to these very different traditional communities.

It is the view of the Cobuqua people that the pursuit of further
legislation in the form of an amendment to the Act, is flawed as long as
these material differences are not engaged and resolved. There can be no
single system of governance in this situation. As the Cobuqua people have
consistently maintained, some individuals may be seduced by the offers of
handsome monthly salaries, while the territorial aspirations of these
communities continue to be ignored or suppressed. Without access to land on
which these communities can re-establish their livelihoods, the proposed
system remains a temporary solution that can only lead to future community
distress and conflict.

The Cobuqua people request to have their submission acknowledged and
debated in the Portfolio Committee and to receive reports on how the
Portfolio Committee proposes to try to find solutions to this situation.
For too long, people of Khoi-San ancestry have been expected to assimilate
into a dominant model of governance.
The perpetuation of this practice of subordinating people of Khoi-San
descent into a dominant practice is a perpetuation of apartheid practices
that have no place in a post-1994 constitutional democracy.

We look forward to having a meaningful engagement on these issues.

Yours sincerely,

Marjorie Jobson
on behalf of and with the involvement of Chief Joseph Wade, traditional
leader of the Cobuqua people of the Eastern Cape
Email: josephywade at yahoo.com
Cell: 073 683 1104 and 073 055 4639

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