'Don't call us coloureds'

Khoi and San people do not want to be referred to as "coloureds" and want the government to ban the use of the word in reference to them.

Speaking at a Khoi-San indaba hosted by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in Hilton, near Pietermaritzburg, yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal Khoi-San leader Raymond Trollip said his people had lost much under colonialism and apartheid, including their identity.

The indaba was convened to decide on ways in which government policy could accommodate claims by indigenous South Africans to land they claim to have been dispossessed of before introduction of the 1913 Land Act.

Speaking also on behalf of the Namas and Koranas , Trollip said the people wanted to be referred to by their original identities.

Trollip demanded that their culture and retention of identity be supported by the government, and that their chiefs be paid by the government.

"The government has BEE for our black brothers and sisters. We want something similar.

"Our black brothers and sisters drive nice cars and live in nice houses and we are lower down the scale. We want to be equal with them," he said.

Former Western Cape premier Peter Marais, who said he was 100% Griqua, said people had the right to self-identification and being called "coloured" was enforced identification.