A senior academic at China’s Zhejiang Normal University was among 10 people inducted as leaders of the Ndlambe Links Korana Khoisan community in a ceremony at Centenary Park recently. Among those who attended were Paramount Chief of the Links Royal House in the Eastern Cape, Crawford Fraser, from Gqeberha, and Michael Links, leader of the Korana Khoisan community, from Bethlehem in the Free State.
Dressed in vivid purple and orange, Arielle Liu was accompanied by women from the community that has made the municipal reserve their home and cultural base since December 2023. Inside the thatched boma with a fire at its centre, to the accompaniment of a drummer, Liu stood in front of Fraser who instructed her in her duties as a senior leader.
Liu, who is the Director of the South African Branch, Institute of Africa Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, has for the past year brought several groups of Chinese students to the site to experience Khoisan culture. The students, hosted by Nelson Mandela University, are part of the South Africa-China High-Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism (PPEM). The initiative launched in 2017 under then minister of arts and culture Nathi Mthethwa. According to the South African government, the PPEM is “to deepen mutual understanding between the peoples of South Africa and China and to enhance People-to-People exchanges and cooperation in areas of, among others, culture; education; communications; health; science and technology; sports; tourism; women affairs and youth”.
“I am very, very happy and I’m excited to be given this honour,” Liu told Talk of the Town afterwards. It’s something totally new. With new [authority] comes new responsibility and I will try to build more bridges between the Korana nation and China that will bring benefits to this community.”
Ndlambe Links chief Johannes Opperman later explained that Liu’s role as a senior headwoman in the Ndlambe tribe would be to serve as an international ambassador for the Korana.
Other leaders inducted at the ceremony were (headmen) Kieran Hilpert, Danny Lesley, Edmund Tarentaal and Monty Ruiters; (senior headmen) Donovan Thomas, Joseph Diedericks, Jurgen Brooks and Frederik Pienaar; (headwoman for Port Alfred) Tamryn Opperman.
While they are appointed in terms of cultural precepts, their positions are eventually likely to provide them with political status. Once the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill of 2024 is passed into law, the Ndlambe Links group of the Korana will be represented in some form in locql government.
Speaking to Talk of the Town later, Opperman emphasised that whle they were grateful to ANC parliamentarians for standing up for their cultural rights, thr group was not politically aligned. Asked what role they might play in next year’s local government elections, Opperman said, “Each and every member of my tribe has the right to vote for the party they want to vote for.”
The 2019 Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act (TKLA) was legislated to recognise and regulate Khoisan leadership and communities. It was challenged, however, and in 2023 the Constitutional Court declared the act invalid because of inadequate public consultation. It suspended that invalidation until May 29, 2027, to allow for processes concerning the new bill to be completed.
The 2024 bill was introduced to address the deficiencies that Concourt identified. The deadline for public comment was February 28, 2025. Leading the bill’s finalization is the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. When it becomes law, it will provide a legal framework for the roles of traditional and Khoisan leadership structures within the various levels of government.
The community at Centenary Park, which is public land under the management of Ndlambe Municipality, have been issued with an eviction notice; however, subsequent queries to Ndlambe have been met with the response that the matter is sub judice and that the municipality can’t comment on it, nor say what discussions are under way regarding the land.
Opperman says the Gysman and Hilpert families lived on the land and were forcibly removed to Station Hill in 1972.
“We are not fighting with anyone,” Opperman said. “We just want to be free.”
-
This article was first published in Talk of the Town, August 7, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
