the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 105 which includes places or objects with cultural significance or other special value because of its possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of South Africa's natural or cultural heritage and/or its potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of South Africa's natural or cultural heritage and/or its importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of South Africa's natural or cultural places or objects. Section 3 of NHRA also describes the National Estate to include specific cultural and natural artifacts. For a list of these, please refer to Description of the NHRA in Section 5.b and 5.c. Protection and Management of Buffer Zones The Buffer Zone to the North (Richtersveld National Park) is protected by the Protected Areas Act under one of the highest provision of protective status available in South Africa. South African National Parks (SANParks) has an excellent track record in biodiversity conservation and management and currently manages World Heritage Site areas, such as Cape Peninsula National Park. The Buffer Zone to the East (Helskloof Provincial Nature Reserve) is protected under the Protected Areas Act as a provincial nature reserve, enjoying a high level of protection which prohibits human habitation, livestock or development. The Buffer Zone to the South (Communal Grazing Area) is similar to the Conservancy in being sparsely populated wilderness areas with scattered seminomadic sheep and goat herders. The area is zoned by the CPA and local government as a communal grazing area and development is restricted by the CPA. Additional protective status is being considered to protect certain sites in the area, and a five year GEF grant is beginning for sustainable land use in the area.
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 106 5.a. Ownership Prior to democratisation of South Africa in 1994, the Richtersveld Community Conservancy was classified as a “coloured reserve” of which there were 27 in the Western Cape and Northern Cape Province. In the case of the Richtersveld, the largest of the “coloured reserves”, the area is sparsely populated mostly by people of Nama origin, as well as the so-called Bosluis Baster people 8 The CPA In 2001, the Richtersveld Community decided to establish a legal entity known as the Richtersveld Sida !hub Community Property Association (CPA) with the objective of representing the residents of the four Richtersveld villages (Kuboes, Lekkersing, Sandrift and Eksteenfontein) and outlying areas in their land claim, and managing the land restored to the Richtersveld community under the land claims process on behalf of its members, namely every person 18 years and older from the community. After acceptance of the CPA’s constitution on the 14th of February 2001, a CPA Committee was established consisting of representatives elected at separate village elections as well as appointees of the Richtersveld Municipal Council. The CPA constitution and the Communal Property Association Act of 1996 govern the CPA and Xhosa people that Committee’s decision-making powers. The constitution and the Act require community previously worked on the state- participation. Aims of the CPA include owned Alexkor Ltd diamond mine. improvement of the infrastructure, development of agriculture, tourism, and economic opportunities to support job creation, and capacity building of committee members so that they can make the right In the post-1994 government an act was passed known as the decisions on behalf of the community. Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act (Act 94 of 1998) that makes provision for the ownership of such reserves to be determined through a particular process known as the Transformation Process. During the Transformation Process an extensive public awareness process was followed by a referendum that allows residents to vote on ownership options for the land. The main choices given to the 8 While the authors deplore the usage of terms with racial connotations as a point of reference when referring to people this may sometimes be necessary either because people refer to themselves in that way, or because it may reflect a salient point that is made for a particular purpose. The term “Baster” is widely used in Namibia and generally so by the Rehoboth “Basters” who often refer to themselves as such with a great measure of pride in their unique origins and identity. In the Richtersveld the term “Baster” in the past was often used in a derogatory way during the Apartheid era when race formed the basis of discrimination by the government. This however appears to be changing as the desire to discover and analyze heritage increases in the melting pot that is the Richtersveld. While the Nama belong to a distinct and ancient grouping of people they were simply clumped together with the so-called “coloureds” by an ignorant and insensitive South African government when the nation was divided along ethnic and colour lines as a means for further oppression and to bestow special privileges upon the “whites”. The history of the “Bosluis Basters” is captured in a recent book titled BB’s van die Boesmanland by Barry Eksteen (May 2005).
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the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

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