The four Khoisan activists who have been camping outside the Union Buildings since the beginning of December will spend Christmas in Pretoria as they patiently wait to meet the President or his deputy.
The activists have been on a hunger strike for 15 days.
They have vowed to starve until their demands of scrapping the coloured identity and the land claims of 1913, are met. They also want to be recognised as the first nation of South Africa.
The activists left Port Elizabeth in mid-November walking to Pretoria, all for an audience with President Jacob Zuma or his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.
Now it is a long wait and they have already been waiting for the past 23 days. And as the wait continues, it seems to be taking its toll on the health of some of activists.
On Wednesday, Chris Martin complained of chest pains and was admitted to hospital.
Even this has still not afforded them an audience with the President.
Chances are that such a meeting might take place in early 2018 but they say by then, they might have died of hunger.
The activists also took their protest to Nasrec Expo Centre where the African National Congress (ANC) was holding its NEC conference this week.
They had hoped that their fortunes would change but still they could not meet either Zuma or Ramaphosa.
Martin 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 2018.
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