24 December 2017 – 12:32
BY TIMESLIVE
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa met with the four Khoisan men‚ who had walked more than 1‚200km to demand that their voices be heard.
Image: Facebook/Busani Ngcaweni
After an almost three-week hunger strike four Khoisan activists have ended their protest on the lawns of the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
On Sunday Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa met with the four Khoisan men‚ who had walked more than 1‚200km to demand that their voices be heard.
They had camped out at the Union Buildings‚ adamant they would not eat or vacate the area until President Jacob Zuma or Ramaphosa met with them.
One member of the group‚ Christian Martin‚ was taken to hospital on Wednesday after he experienced chest pains.
He had flown in to join three other activists who had walked from Port Elizabeth to the seat of government.
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NEWS 9 days ago
The group had a simple set of demands: they want government to recognise Khoisan as the First Nation of South Africa‚ they want their language to be made official plus the land claims of 1913 and the Coloured identity to be scrapped.
“We walked more than 1‚200 kilometres from Port Elizabeth to hand over our memorandum to the president or the deputy president of South Africa‚” the group’s leader‚ known as Chief Khoisan SA‚ said previously.
“We first camped outside the Unions Buildings for the past week and we have not been received by the president.”
The group then camped outside Nasrec Expo Centre where the ANC National Elective Conference took place last weekend. “We decided to come here since the president and members of the top six will be here for the next five days‚” Chief Khoisan SA told TimesLIVE last Saturday.
All four ate no food‚ drinking only water for 17 days.
eNCA reported on Sunday that Ramaphosa assured the four that he was taking their demands seriously.
The report also stated that the activists had “expressed their appreciation that Ramaphosa had broken from his pre-Christmas schedule to meet with them”.
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-12-24-khoisan-four-end-hunger-strike-after-meeting-ramaphosa/