Knoflokskraal inhabitants wrongfully deemed lawless squatters, says community leader

A community leader from Knoflokskraal near Grabouw in the Western Cape, Elouise Rossouw, has explained that the inhabitants of the settlement are being wrongfully portrayed as lawless squatters.

She said the Khoisan community living there since 2020 wants the government to be more open-minded in recognising them as a Khoisan cultural community and the State farmland, which they began occupying in 2020, as ancestral land needed for spiritual practices.

But Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson insists their occupation is illegal and he intends to approach the court to prevent its further growth.

Rossouw said the community living at Knoflokskraal is not opposed to complying with a demand from the government to conduct a social survey at the settlement.

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She said all five recognised stems of the Khoi form part of the leadership structure.

“Our request is, and our feeling is that they have to survey us as a collective and not individually. If we are surveyed as individuals, it will just cause division among our people, and that’s the last thing we want to do.”

Rossouw, who said she’s a permanent resident at the settlement, said the community wants the government to institute an inquiry to verify the land claim for security of tenure.

She added that the inhabitants have never claimed to be destitute or homeless.

“The whole vision for Knoflokskraal is that we must become a Khwe and a /Xam village where we are practising our customs and our rituals.”

But Macpherson insists the land is being occupied unlawfully, and that the government must stop the expansion of the settlement.