The four Khoisan activists, who have been camping outside the Union Buildings since the beginning of this month, will spend Christmas there waiting to meet with the President or his deputy.
They have been on a hunger strike for 15 days and have vowed to starve until their demands are met.
It was a long walk to the Union Buildings for three of the Khoisan activists. They left Port Elizabeth in mid-November walking to Pretoria.
The trek was all for an audience with President Zuma or his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.
Now it is a long wait, they have already been patiently waiting for the past 23 days and 15 days ago they embarked on a hunger strike.
On Wednesday this week, one of them, Chris Martin, complained of chest pains and was admitted to hospital, but still no audience with the president not just yet.
Chances are that such a meeting might take place early next year, but they say by then they might have died of hunger.
Chief Khoisan SA elaborates, “We are only drinking water, we don’t eat food, so you see the medical team they are coming to check with us. We are starting to feel dizziness, we’ve got pains in our hearts, but we made it clear we will wait till January the first, but it will mean that they will carry up our bodies to the Union Buildings because by that time we would be dead.”
The activists also took their protest to Nasrec Expo Centre where the African National Congress was holding its conference this week.
They had hoped that their fortunes would change, but still they could not meet either the president or his deputy.
Their demands include among others, the scrapping of the coloured identity and the land claims of 1913.
They also want to be recognised as the first nation of South Africa.
Chief Khoisan SA says, “We want government to also make our language official. Our language on the coat of arms, it is a language but it’s not official. Also the Xhosa and the Zulu languages they got the clicks from us but their languages are official not ours.”
Government offices closed early on Friday as civil servants and officials left for the Christmas long weekend.
This means there will be no communication between the activists and the office of the president until late next week or early next year.
